To be eligible for the honor, an astronaut must be a U.S. citizen; trained by NASA as either a commander, pilot or mission specialist; completed at least one orbit around the Earth; and retired from the astronaut corps for at least five years.

The members of the class of 2008 for U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame are:

Loren J. Shriver, with three missions to his credit, was the commander of the mission (STS-31) that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, a telescope that continues to amaze astronomers even after twenty years in space. His NASA biography is found at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shriver.html.

John E. Blaha, with five missions to his credit, was the astronaut that once set a U.S. men’s record for amount of time spent in space when on STS-79 he lived and worked on the Russian Mir space station for four months. His NASA biography is found at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/blaha.html.

Bryan D. O’Connor, flying twice for NASA, was the first life sciences mission commander when he led the STS-40 mission, the first mission dedicated to life sciences. During the flight, O’Connor and his crew performed multiple experiments involving the biomedical field. His NASA biography is found at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/oconnor-bd.html.

Robert D. Cabana, with four missions in space, was the astronaut that led the first assembly mission (STS-88) to the International Space Station. Flying Endeavour, Cabana and his crew delivered the first U.S. built module (Unity) and installed it to the Russian Zarya control module. His NASA biography is found at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/cabana.html.

Begun in 2001, a committee of earlier Hall of Fame honorees, current and retired space program employees, historians, authors, educators, and journalists vote in the selection of each year’s group of former astronauts based on their accomplishments during their time in space.

For additional information on all four astronauts, please go to the CollectSpace.com website: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-010908a.html.

The website of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, under the auspices of the Mercury Seven Foundation and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, is located at: http://www.astronautscholarship.org/ahof.html.

The Hall of Fame was created by the Mercury 7 astronauts as a way to honor and remember U.S. space travelers. It is located on NASA Parkway in Titusville, Florida, just outside of the entrance to the NASA Kennedy Space Center.

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Astronaut  NASA  Science  Space Shuttle  Space Station  United States  William Atkins