KSC-2014-2397

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Former NASA astronauts and space explorers Shannon Lucid and Jerry Ross were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame class of 2014 during a ceremony inside the Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Lucid was selected as an astronaut in 1979 and retired from NASA in 2012. She is the only American woman to serve aboard the Russian Space Station Mir and was the first woman to join a U.S. class of astronauts. She held the record until 2007 for the most flight hours in orbit by a female astronaut, 223 days. Ross was an astronaut from 1979 to 2012. He was the first astronaut to break the world record for being the first human launched into space seven times. He flew on seven space shuttle missions, performed nine spacewalks and logged 58 days in space. The 2014 inductees were selected by a committee of Hall of Fame astronauts, former NASA officials, flight directors, historians and journalists. The process is administered by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. To be eligible, an astronaut must have made his or her first flight at least 17 years before the induction. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen and a NASA-trained commander, pilot or mission specialist who has orbited the earth at least once. Including Lucid and Ross, 87 astronauts have been inducted into the AHOF. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett