2008 Class of Astronaut Hall of Fame
2008 Class of Astronaut Hall of Fame Inductees
Four astronauts will be inducted into the 2008 class of the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in May. The honorees include the commander of the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, an astronaut who once set a United States men’s record for time in space, the first life sciences mission commander and the astronaut who led the first assembly mission to the International Space Station. The four space shuttle pilots are Loren Shriver, John Blaha, Bryon O’Connor and Robert Cabana. The ceremony will be held in Florida and many of the 66 Mercury through shuttle-era veterans who were enshrined since its 1990 opening in attendance.
Loren Shriver (Colonel, USAF, Ret.) was selected as an astronaut with the first class of shuttle astronauts in 1978. Shriver first flew as pilot of STS-51C, a classified mission for the Department of Defense. On his second flight, he led the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope as commander of STS-31, beginning the telescope’s nearly 20 years of imaging the universe.
John E. Blaha (Colonel USAF, Ret). Becoming an astronaut in 1980, Blaha flew five space shuttle missions and one long-duration space station flight over a span of seventeen years. He piloted Discovery STS-29 on the 3rd flight following the loss of Challenger. His second flight was as pilot of STS-33, only the third shuttle mission to launch at night. Bryan O’Connor (Colonel, USMC, Ret.). Prior to serving as the space agency’s chief of safety, O’Connor flew two missions. In 1991, he left NASA to become commanding officer of the Marine Aviation Detachment, Naval Air Test Center but returned one year later to become the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight. In 2002, he rejoined the space agency.
A committee comprised of the earlier inductees, current and retired space program workers, historians, authors, educators and journalists voted to select the enshrines. Astronauts were eligible if they had made their first flight no later than 1991 and had been retired for at least five years from the astronaut corps. Candidates were required to be United States citizens who were trained by NASA as either commanders, pilots or mission specialists and had made at least one orbit around the earth.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which will host a gala on May 2nd celebrating the 2008 class, oversaw the selection of the voting committee and induction process. Though typically the classes are limited to two to three inductees, this year’s voting came so close to merit the inclusion of a fourth honoree.
The Committee chose the 2008 inductees based on their achievement during their spaceflights as well as how they contributed to the United States Space program in other activities.
The 2008 class is the seventh group of shuttle astronauts to be named to the Hall since 2001.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 7:08 am and is filed under Mission History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
