These guys were outta here!

Image: Astronaut Joseph Allen portrait; Astronaut Gordon Fullerton portrait, Astronaut Bruce McCandless portrait
Info: Allen bio, Fullerton bio, McCandless bio


Hang onto your hats, folks! The posts are coming fast and furious today; I have lots of news to dispense...first up--let's hear it for these guys:

Three more men were inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame this past weekend, bringing the total honored to 60 brave souls. Astronauts Joseph Allen and Bruce McCandless and test pilot Gordon Fullerton (flew first shuttle, Enterprise, powered and unpowered), all joined NASA during the Apollo program, but made their first and only flights aboard shuttles.
From the story at Space.com:


Selected for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory before transferring to NASA, Fullerton flew two shuttle flights in space and before them, five captive and free approach and landing tests with the shuttle Enterprise. He piloted the third flight of the shuttle Columbia, testing the robotic arm, and landing the first and only time at White Sands, New Mexico due to wet conditions at Edwards Air Force Base. Six minutes into Fullerton's second mission STS-51F, which he commanded, a premature engine shutdown forced the only abort in Space Shuttle history on an otherwise routine Spacelab science-focused flight.

Allen flew to space twice, on missions STS-5 in 1982, and STS-51A in 1984. His rookie flight, the shuttle's first operational mission, deployed two satellites. His second mission featured the world's first space salvage. Using the jet backpack first tested by McCandless, Allen and his crew mate Dale Gardner captured two malfunctioning satellites. While Gardner worked to prepare for berthing in the payload bay, Allen held the half-ton spacecraft steady above the orbiter for 90 minutes.

McCandless will be forever remembered by an iconic photograph taken of him flying freely - without tethers - over the Earth on mission STS-41B. During that flight, his first, McCandless tested the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a jet-powered backpack that allowed him to float away from the shuttle. Six years later, he launched to space aboard STS-31 / Discovery to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

Each of these men received well-deserved honors from scientists, engineers and fellow astronauts alike.
Too bad they don't televise and promote these events like they do the MTV Music Awards. Maybe then kids would want to grow up and be like Buzz Aldrin instead of Kid Rock....