Honors Bestowed on Astronauts
Added to an elite list of Hall of Fame members, including Armstrong, Glenn and Shepard, are astronauts Robert D. Cabana and Bryan D. O’connor, as well as former astronauts John E. Blaha and Loren J. Shriver. A committee of former NASA officials and flight controllers, journalists, historians, and Hall of Fame astronauts selected the 2008 inductees.
Robert Cabana was the commander of the first international Space Station assembly mission with four space shuttle missions to his credit, graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1971 and retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2000. During those years he logged over 7,000 hours in 36 different kinds of aircraft. In 1985, NASA selected Cabana, who completed initial astronaut training in 1986, qualifying for assignment as a pilot on future Space Shuttle flight crews. A veteran of four space flights, Cabana had logged over 1,010 hours in space. The flights included serving as pilot of STS-41 and STS-53 and as mission commander on STS_65 and STS-88, the first international Space Station assembly mission.
Bryan O’Connor serves NASA as the Chief, Safety and Mission Assurance with responsibility for the safety, reliability, maintainability, and quality assurance of all NASA programs. He served with the United States Marine Corps in 1968 and was a test pilot before being selected for the astronaut program in 1980. He flew over 5,000 hours in over forty types of aircraft. In 1985, O’Connor piloted STS-61B with the heaviest payload weight to orbit by the Space Shuttle and the first to deploy four satellites. In 1991 he commanded STS-40, the first Space Shuttle dedicated totally to life science studies. In these two missions, he spent 386 hours in space covering nearly six million miles in 253 orbits of the Earth.
John E. Blaha graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in engineering science and from Purdue University with a Master of Science in astronomical engineering. He was selected as an astronaut in 1980 and had logged 161 days on five space missions and set the American’s men space record for time in space during his four months in orbit. His many special honors include two NASA distinguished service medals, NASA outstanding leadership medal and Exceptional Service Medal. Blaha retired from NASA in September 1997, returning to his hometown, San Antonio, Texas, and joined the Executive Management Group of the United States Automobile Organization.
Loren Shriver served at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as the Launch and Payload Processing deputy director from 1997 to 2000. He was a veteran of three shuttle flights and commanded the STS-31 mission to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. From Iowa, Shriver graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and Purdue University. He flew in thirty different types of single and multi-engine civilian and military fixed wing and helicopter aircraft and has logged over 6,200 hours in jet aircraft, and holds commercial pilot and private glider ratings. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1978, in addition to being a veteran of three space flights and logging over 386 hours in space. In 1992 he became Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 11:41 pm and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News. 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.
