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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Richard O. Covey, commander of the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, speaks to guests at the induction of five space program heroes into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. Seated from left, they are Norman E. Thagard, the first American to occupy Russia’s Mir space station; June Scobee, on behalf of her late husband Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, commander of the ill-fated 1986 Challenger mission; Kathryn D. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space; and Frederick D. Gregory, the first African-American to command a space mission and the current NASA deputy administrator. The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in 1990 to provide a place where space travelers could be remembered for their participation and accomplishments in the U.S. space program. To be eligible for induction, an individual must have been a U.S. citizen, a NASA astronaut, and out of the active astronaut corps at least five years. The five inductees join 52 previously honored astronauts from the ranks of the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and Space Shuttle programs.