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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Before the induction ceremony of five space program heroes into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, former astronaut Ed Mitchell is introduced as a previous inductee. Mitchell explored the Moon's hilly Fra Mauro region with Alan B. Shepard during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. The ceremony was held at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at KSC. New inductees are Richard O. Covey, commander of the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission; Norman E. Thagard, the first American to occupy Russia’s Mir space station; the late 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. The five inductees join 52 previously honored astronauts from the ranks of the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and Space Shuttle programs.