The shuttle program "is an entirely different thing," Lovell said. "In Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, it was all really research and development. The shuttle is a pretty proven vehicle. The people we are inducting are really the R&D folks of the shuttle."
A selection committee of former flight directors, journalists and a space historian chose from 21 shuttle astronauts who flew in the first two years of the program, Benedict said.
"They were the epitome of shuttle commanders in those early days of the program," Benedict said.
Crippen thought his first ride would come aboard an Air Force space station called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory that used a Gemini space capsule atop a cylinder large enough for two men to live.
Explaining his decision to try for the Defense Department project instead of NASA, Crippen said, it "looked like a much better opportunity to fly sooner."
Crippen, a Navy A-4 attack jet pilot, was among the second group selected for that program in 1966. The advent of superior satellites made the orbiting laboratory effort obsolete, however, and the plan was canceled. Crippen moved to NASA in 1969 where he played a supporting role in the Skylab missions and was quickly tapped for the first shuttle flight.
His role as pilot brought Crippen considerable publicity leading up to the 1981 mission. Hasbro recently made him into a GI Joe figure marking the shuttle's history.
"Even getting on top of that shuttle, which had never been tested, took guts," former Associated Press space reporter Howard Benedict said. "That took almost as much guts as (Mercury astronaut John) Glenn getting on top of that Atlas."
Benedict is the executive director of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit organization that operates the Astronaut Hall of Fame and offers scholarships to college students in engineering and science fields.
"The best part was between takeoff and landing," the astronaut recalled, using a line from mission commander John Young. Young was selected for the Hall of Fame as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut.
Truly, also a Navy pilot, chose the same route and ended up at NASA alongside Crippen, but flew as pilot on the second Columbia mission.
Both would end their NASA careers in management positions, with Crippen serving two years as Kennedy Space Center director and Truly as NASA administrator.
"Dick Truly is probably my best male friend," Crippen said. "My wife is my best friend."
Flying the shuttle the first time remains the highlight of Crippen's career, he said, although managing the shuttle program as Kennedy Space Center director often meant greater challenges.
"Giving the go to light the fire is a lot harder than fitting into the cockpit," he said.
Engle commanded the second flight, but beat his Hall of Fame classmates into space by more than a decade on the wings of the X-15 rocket plane. He received Air Force astronaut wings in 1964.
Hauck flew two missions prior to the Challenger disaster of 1986, but it was his command of Discovery's first flight following the disaster that garnered his selection.
"I think that's what really got him in," Benedict said. "That took guts to do that."
The organization selected all of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts for the Hall of Fame because they were all considered trailblazers.
Benedict said some shuttle astronauts will not be selected because of the number of shuttle missions over the years and the routine nature of some of them.
"The guy who flew once as a scientist-astronaut, he probably doesn't have a chance," Benedict said.
Lovell said the committee will select the groundbreakers from the shuttle program.
"We want to make it very prestigious," he said.
The public event will mark the largest gathering of former astronauts ever on the Space Coast, according to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Thirty-five members of that elite fraternity are expected, including original Mercury astronauts Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper. Lovell will lead the induction ceremony.
Crippen said such events are uncommon for the men who trained together for years, but split off in dozens of different directions since leaving the astronaut ranks.
Benedict said such assemblies lead to enthralling retellings of the space age from insiders' perspectives.
"They love those reunions, to get together, to kick back and tell tall tales," he said.
The students the foundation helps through college often show talents that astronauts lack, Lovell said.
"I have to admit, I feel a little small around them," he said. "They have many disciplines whereas I was a test pilot. A lot of them are into electronics, a lot are in computers."
The organization, formed in 1984 by the surviving Mercury Seven astronauts, has handed out more than $1.4 million in scholarships to 146 college students.
For more information and tickets to the Nov. 9 dinner and Nov. 10 induction ceremonies, phone (321) 449-4444 or log on to
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