Veteran Astronauts Bobko, Helms Selected For Hall Of Fame

The first woman to serve on the International Space Station and an astronaut who flew on the maiden voyages of the orbiters Challenger and Atlantis will be inducted this May into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Susan Helms and retired Air Force Col. Karol "Bo" Bobko were selected from a field of 19 candidates and will bring to 79 the number of elite U.S. space explorers inducted in the hall of fame. The two will be enshrined during a public induction ceremony on May 7 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Helms, 52, is a veteran of five space flights and six trips aboard U.S. space shuttles. She flew on STS-54 in Jan. 1993, STS-64 in September 1994, STS-78 in the summer of 1996 and STS-101 in May 2000. Helms was a flight engineer on the Expedition 2 crew of the International Space Station; she flew up to the outpost on STS-102 in March 2001 and back to Earth on STS-105 in August 2001.

Helms and James Voss hold the world record for the longest spacewalk: 8 hours and 56 minutes. She spent 163 days on the International Space Station and logged more than 5,000 hours in space.

After her departure from NASA's Astronaut Corps in July 2002, she served as deputy commander and then commander of the Air Force 45th Space Wing, which conducts rocket launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The wing also operates the Eastern Range, which comprises a network of ground stations that provides range safety, tracking and weather forecasting services for all launches from Cape Canaveral and NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Bobko, 73, served as pilot on NASA's sixth shuttle mission in April 1983, the first flight of Challenger. The STS-6 crew deployed NASA's first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite -- spacecraft that enable orbiting crews to maintain near-constant contact with flight controllers in Mission Control.

The first shuttle-era spacewalk was conducted on the mission, too.

Two years later, on the fourth anniversary of the first shuttle launch and the 24th anniversary of the 1961 launch of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on the world's first human spaceflight, Bobko and a crew launched on STS-51D, a mission to deploy two communications satellites. One the satellites failed and the crew made a daring, albeit unsuccessful, spacewalking attempt to activate the spacecraft.

U.S. Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, became the first member of Congress to fly aboard the shuttle during the mission. One of the shuttle's tires blew out upon landing at Kennedy Space Center. The incident prompted NASA to land missions at Edwards Air Force Base in California until nosewheel steering could be added to the orbiters.

Bobko commanded STS-51J, a classified mission for the Department of Defense in October 1985. It was the first flight of the orbiter Atlantis. He also served as the lead astronaut of the "Cape Crusaders" -- a test and checkout group at Kennedy Space Center -- during preparations for the first shuttle launch in 1981.

Helms and Bobko tallied the most votes on ballots submitted by a selection committee that includes all living inductees and approximately 25 journalists, authors, NASA and aerospace industry officials familiar with the U.S. human space flight program. The committee also includes at-large representatives, including educators and historians.

To be eligible, astronauts must have made their first flight at least 17 years before the induction year, and must have been retired from NASA's Astronaut Office and flight status for at least five years. A candidate must be a U.S. citizen, NASA-trained, commander, pilot of mission specialist and must have orbited Earth at least once.

The original seven Mercury astronauts were inducted when the hall of fame opened in 1990. Thirteen Gemini astronauts were added in 1993 and in 1997. 24 Apollo astronauts were enshrined. Bobko and Helms comprise the 10th group of shuttle astronauts to be inducted since 2001.