THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
ABOVE: Astronaut Joe Tanner (Provided Photo)
DANVILLE — It’s not every day retired astronaut and Danville native Joe Tanner can be “completely surprised.”
But a phone call from Curt Brown, his crewmate on his first shuttle flight in 1994 and now chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, did just that back in December.
The extraordinary news — Tanner is one of two former astronauts, along with Tom Akers, who will be inducted into NASA’s U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on May 16.
Tanner said Akers is a “dear friend of ours and it’s really special to be going through this process with him.”
Tanner will “join the distinguished group of American space pioneers whose careers helped shape the Space Shuttle Program, International Space Station assembly and some of NASA’s most complex and historic missions,” according to the foundation.
“I knew I was on the ballot,” Tanner said.
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