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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the late Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, commander of the ill-fated 1986 Challenger mission, is inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. He is represented by his widow, June Scobee (left), who is accompanied by former NASA astronaut James A. Lovell Jr. and NASA astronaut Barbara R. Morgan. Morgan assumed the duties of Teacher in Space designee following the death of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher on the Challenger mission, and was selected by NASA in January 1998 as the first Educator Astronaut. Also chosen for induction in 2004 are Kathryn D. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space; Richard O. Covey, commander of the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission; Frederick D. Gregory, the first African-American to command a space mission; and Norman E. Thagard, the first American to occupy Russia's Mir space station. The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in 1990 to provide a place where space travelers could be remembered for their participation and accomplishments in the U.S. space program. To be eligible for induction, an individual must have been a U.S. citizen, a NASA astronaut, and out of the active astronaut corps at least five years. The five inductees join 52 previously honored astronauts from the ranks of the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and Space Shuttle programs. KSC-04pd0974
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the late Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, commander of the ill-fated 1986 Challenger mission, is inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. He is represented by his widow, June Scobee (left), who is accompanied by former NASA astronaut James A. Lovell Jr. and NASA astronaut Barbara R. Morgan. Morgan assumed the duties of Teacher in Space designee following the death of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher on the Challenger mission, and was selected by NASA in January 1998 as the first Educator Astronaut. Also chosen for induction in 2004 are Kathryn D. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space; Richard O. Covey, commander of the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission; Frederick D. Gregory, the first African-American to command a space mission; and Norman E. Thagard, the first American to occupy Russia's Mir space station. The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in 1990 to provide a place where space travelers could be remembered for their participation and accomplishments in the U.S. space program. To be eligible for induction, an individual must have been a U.S. citizen, a NASA astronaut, and out of the active astronaut corps at least five years. The five inductees join 52 previously honored astronauts from the ranks of the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and Space Shuttle programs.
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
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