CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Spacefarers competed with lightning and downpours for attention Saturday at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as four shuttle veterans were inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
With "Right Stuff" and "Aliens" actor Lance Henriksen presiding, Daniel Brandenstein, Robert "Hoot" Gibson, Story Musgrave and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, were honored by their fellow hall-of-famers.
Musgrave thanked those who supported him, including workers at Kennedy Space Center. "You took care of me, for which I will be forever thankful," said Musgrave, a Marine Corps veteran with a half-dozen degrees, including one in medicine.
Ride, who participated in the Challenger accident investigation and now the Columbia probe, stood out in her class and was a logical choice for her mission, given her knowledge of the shuttle robot arm and shuttle systems, Bob Crippen said. Crippen, also a Hall of Fame astronaut, was her commander then.
She "broke perhaps the world's highest glass ceiling that had existed for more than two decades when Challenger lifted off on April the 18th of 1983," he said.
The first woman in space was the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. "In the media, the crew was known as 'Sally Ride and the others,' " Crippen said to laughter. The crew was "proud to be 'the others.' "
"When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of flying in space," Ride said. "I still can't believe that dream came true."
Brandenstein received his medal during the worst of the downpour. "I had tremendous opportunity to work with a great space team, great crews," he said.
He thanked his parents for their influence and his wife for her patience while he flew four missions.
Mercury and shuttle astronaut John Glenn introduced Gibson with an amusing description of the old cowboy "Hoot" Gibson. "He was not what one might call handsome, maybe a little on the homely side, nor did he cut a dashing figure on horseback, though he could ride like a demon,'" Glenn read.
Gibson was a Navy pilot and flew five shuttle missions, including the first landing at KSC in 1984 and the first mission to dock with the Russian station Mir.
"I never would have imagined that a quarter of a century ago, when Dan Brandenstein, Sally Ride and I all started at NASA, that I would ever be accepting an honor like this, but thank you so very much for it," Gibson said.
The astronauts, dry under a covered stage, were in the middle of the ceremony when the dark clouds moved in and the skies opened up. Several people -- including the Philadelphia Boys Choir and a crowd of onlookers -- ran for shelter when the rain and dangerous lightning started.
The speeches, however, continued until all the presentations were made.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2003 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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