Nelson, Shepherd and Wetherbee inducted in Astronaut Hall of Fame

George "Pinky Nelson, one of only six who have
carried out MMU-enabled unteathered spacewalks,
today among three veteran astronauts inducted into the
Astronauts Hall of Fame at KSC

As celebrated by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 58-year-old George "Pinky" Nelson is being inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Saturday, May 2. Pinky was one of only six space shuttle astronauts to fly the Manned Maneuvering Unit untethered in space. He flew three space shuttle missions during the 11 years he was in the Astronaut Corps, 1978-1989.

According to a front page article in this morning's edition of The Bellingham Herald, Pinky and his wife Susie and their two daughters will attend the ceremony, along with his sister. The Nelsons lived in Clinton and were very involved people in the community: Susie worked for Island County and Pinky was in Farmer Bob's carpool to Seattle! These days, the couple lives in Bellingham, where he's director of the Science, Mathematics And Technology Education program at Western Washington University.

Pinky is among three astronauts to join the elite group of American space heroes who are inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. The other two are William Shepherd and Jim Wetherbee. The trio is in very good company, with such legendary space pioneers as Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Jim Lovell, Sally Ride and John Young. After today's ceremony, there will be 73 space explores in the prestigious group.

Heads Up Andrea Farmer
For these photographs HERE.