The U.S. Astronaut Corridor of Fame will have a good time the careers of two space shuttle pilots, one who flew in the beginning of this system and one other who helped convey it to an in depth nearly 30 years later.
Retired Main Normal Roy Bridges and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have been chosen because the 2023 Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees (opens in new tab). The 2 can be enshrined throughout a public ceremony at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart Customer Complicated in Florida on Could 6.
“This yr’s class is one other instance of excellence from our space program,” Curt Brown, chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Basis, former NASA astronaut and 2013 inductee within the Corridor of Fame, said in a statement (opens in new tab) launched on Monday (Feb. 6). “Each Kelly and Bridges characterize the dedicated spirit of exploration, bravery and teamwork that make our space program a continued success. We’re proud and honored to have them be part of the ranks of the space pioneers acknowledged in america Astronaut Corridor of Fame.”
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Chosen by NASA in 1980 and 1996, respectively, Bridges’ and Kelly’s time within the astronaut corps didn’t overlap. The closest they got here on the space company was in 2001, when Bridges was 4 years into his six-year time period as director of the Kennedy Space Center and Kelly made his first flight from the Florida spaceport.
Each are being honored for the contributions they made they made to the U.S. space program after they had been on lively flight obligation and after they retired and took on management positions at NASA and within the U.S. authorities. Their addition to the Corridor of Fame brings the total number of inductees (opens in new tab) to 107 because the establishment was based in 1990.
Pilot, commander, director
Bridges’ first launch was aboard the eighth flight of the space shuttle Challenger, STS-51F, in July 1985. Because the mission’s pilot, it was as much as Bridges and commander Gordon Fullerton to execute the one abort to orbit within the shuttle program’s historical past after one of many orbiter’s three important engines prematurely reduce off. Challenger made it into space however entered a lower-than-planned orbital altitude. Nonetheless, the crew carried out the flight’s targets efficiently.
The eight-day STS-51F mission, often known as Spacelab 2, was devoted to verifying the efficiency of the laboratory module and conducting science. The flight acquired essentially the most publicity, although, for the Carbonated Beverage Dispenser Analysis, which evaluated Coca-Cola and Pepsi cans (opens in new tab) designed to be used in orbit. The press labeled the trial as bringing the “Cola Wars” to space.
Bridges logged 7 days, 22 hours and 45 minutes in space on that mission. After returning to Earth, he was assigned to fly as pilot of STS-61F, once more on Challenger. The mission had been scheduled for Could 1986, however within the wake of the Challenger tragedy 5 months earlier, the deliberate flight was canceled. Had it flown, Bridges and his STS-61F crewmates would have deployed the Ulysses solar probe utilizing the primary Centaur-G payload booster. (Ulysses was later launched on shuttle Discovery by the STS-41 crew utilizing an inertial higher stage in October 1990.)
With out a new mission task, Bridges left the astronaut corps in Could 1986. He was recalled by the Air Power to steer its largest check wing at Edwards Air Power Base in California. He subsequently held a number of extra management positions, together with commander of the Jap House and Missile Heart at Patrick Air Power Base in Florida and commander of the Air Power Flight Check Heart at Edwards earlier than retiring from the Air Power in July 1996.
Bridges then grew to become middle director of Kennedy House Heart from 1997 to 2003, after which director of Langley Analysis Heart in Virginia from 2003 to 2005. He left NASA for the second time to take an government place at Northrop Grumman Technical Providers and, in 2015, concurrently grew to become the vice chairman for operations liable for the Nationwide Nuclear Safety Administration’s Nevada Nationwide Safety Website. He retired in 2019.
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Pilot, commander, senator
Like Bridges, Kelly’s first launch preceded a space shuttle tragedy. In December 2001, he lifted off on the space shuttle Endeavour because the pilot of STS-108. The 12-day mission introduced provides and the Expedition 4 crew to the International Space Station earlier than touchdown with the Expedition 3 crew.
Two years later, on Feb. 1, 2003, the shuttle Columbia was lost throughout its return to Earth. Kelly led the crew that recovered the stays of the STS-107 crew.
He was then assigned as pilot of STS-121, NASA’s second “Return to Flight” mission following the Columbia tragedy. The mission examined new security and restore methods, in addition to introduced provides and German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency for the Expedition 13 crew on the space station.
Kelly’s third launch got here in Could 2008. As commander of Discovery, Kelly and his STS-124 crewmates put in the Japanese Kibo laboratory, the station’s largest liveable module.
Kelly’s final mission was additionally the ultimate flight of Endeavour and penultimate launch of the shuttle program. Lifting off in Could 2011, Kelly and his STS-134 crewmates added the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the outside of the space station to measure antimatter in cosmic rays. Kelly flew the mission with the permission of his spouse, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was recovering from a latest assassination try.
Kelly resigned from NASA a number of months after flying his final touchdown, however got here again three years later to serve in a examine of the genetic and molecular results of long-duration spaceflight. Kelly was the earthbound management topic whereas his twin brother, Scott, was aboard the space station for a year-long stay.
The founding father of World View, an organization conducting stratospheric balloon flights, and a #1 New York Occasions Finest Promoting writer of 4 youngsters’s books, Kelly grew to become solely the third astronaut (after Corridor of Fame members John Glenn and Harrison Schmitt) to be elected to the U.S. Senate (opens in new tab) in 2020, representing the state of Arizona.
Corridor of Fame
Bridges and Kelly now be part of the ranks of a number of of their crewmates, who had been earlier inducted into the Astronaut Corridor of Fame. Bridges’ STS-51F commander Gordon Fullerton and mission specialist Story Musgrave had been honored in 2005 and 2003, respectively. Frank Culbertson, Kelly’s crewmate for the journey house on STS-108, and STS-121 commander Steven Lindsey had been enshrined in 2010 and 2015, respectively. Kelly’s twin brother, Scott, joined the hall in 2020 (opens in new tab).
Since 2016, the Astronaut Corridor of Fame has been part of the Heroes & Legends attraction (opens in new tab) at Kennedy House Heart Customer Complicated.
As with previous inductees, Bridges and Kelly had been chosen by a committee of earlier enshrined astronauts, former NASA officers, flight administrators, space historians and journalists. The choice course of is run by the Astronaut Scholarship Basis. To be eligible, a nominee will need to have made his or her first flight at the least 15 years previous to the induction yr, should be a U.S. citizen and have been a NASA-trained commander, pilot or mission specialist who orbited Earth at the least as soon as. Payload specialists could also be eligible if nominated by a U.S. Astronaut Corridor of Fame member.
Following their Could 6 induction ceremony, Bridges and Kelly can be celebrated at a black-tie gala (opens in new tab) hosted by the scholarship basis.
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