Astronauts Franklin Chang Diaz, Kevin Chilton, and Charles Precourt became the newest members of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame this weekend, joining a prestigious group of space pioneers who visited the Moon, helped assemble the Hubble Telescope, crewed aboard the International Space Station, and participated in historic space shuttle missions over the past several decades.
"I receive this honor with a great deal of humility because it is given to me by those who were always my heroes," Chang Diaz, who with seven trips to space is tied for the record for most among the astronaut corps, told Space.com. "To be recognized by those who you admire is even more powerful than to be just recognized at all."
Chilton, who flew on three shuttle missions, achieved the rank of four-star general in the Air Force, the highest ever attained by a NASA astronaut. Precourt at one time served as chief of the U.S. astronaut corps. The trio of space heroes represents the Astronaut Hall of Fame's 11th class of inductees.
"It is just so flattering and humbling," Chilton told Space.com. "Just looking at a list of folks who have been inducted and you look at that and see yourself on that list and you're like, 'Oh, that doesn't look right.'"
All three honorees are veterans of NASA's storied shuttle program, which ended last year. Late last month, the space agency wowed New Yorkers with the final flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise atop a NASA jet along the Hudson River to its final home, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
Chang Diaz, Chilton, and Precourt join such Hall of Fame luminaries as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins of the historic Apollo 11 mission, John Young and Robert Crippen, the crew aboard Columbia for the very first space shuttle mission in 1981, Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut, and Sally Ride, the first American woman to visit space.
There are now 81 astronauts in the Hall of Fame, many of whom were on hand for Saturday's induction ceremony at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral. Among the two dozen Hall of Fame inductees who witnessed the enshrinement of three more colleagues were Crippen and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, according to Space.com.
"It's a real thrill, to be a part of such a long string of great American heroes of the space program," Precourt told the website. "I find it very humbling to be among them."
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