Roy Bridges, Senator Mark Kelly inducted into US Astronaut Hall of Fame

2023 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees Roy Bridges (at center right) and Senator Mark Kelly (center left) pose with prior inductees during their ceremony at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida on Saturday May 6, 2023. The other astronauts pictured include (from left to right): Scott Kelly, Scott Altman, Curt Brown, John Grunsfeld, Janet Kavandi, Pam Melroy, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Daniel Brandenstein, John Blaha, Rhea Seddon, Rusty Schweickart, Joe Kerwin, Hoot Gibson, David Leestma, Bob Crippen, Charlie Bolden and Loren Shriver.

A retired general and a sitting senator were honored by their peers as the newest inductees into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Retired Major General Roy Bridges (U.S. Air Force) and Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) were hailed on Saturday (May 6) at a public ceremony held under the display of the space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The two astronauts flew on other orbiters in NASA's now grounded fleet, Bridges as pilot and Kelly as both pilot and commander.

"Roy flew the space shuttle when I was in college," said Kelly, who was selected with NASA's 16th class of astronauts in 1996, 11 years after Bridges made his first and only spaceflight. "He loomed large within the astronaut office."

Related: Biography of former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly