Two space shuttle-era spacewalkers enter Astronaut Hall of Fame

Tom Akers and Joe Tanner are finally in the same class. The two veteran space shuttle crew members were inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame together on May 16. They could also have been in the same NASA astronaut selection group, too, had history played out a little differently. In 1984, Tanner reported to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) to fly as an instructor pilot and then applied for the next class of astronaut candidates. “Tom came in with the class of 1987, which, interestingly enough, I interviewed for. He made it, and I didn’t,” said Tanner. “And I’ve been leading the way ever since,” said Akers, interrupting Tanner while both laughed in a joint interview with collectSPACE.com. “I have never understood why it took NASA so long to pick him.” (Tanner became an astronaut in 1992.) “All of our spacewalks are designed really for two people; the system really isn’t made where it’s easy for three people,” Akers told collectSPACE. “That was a unique situation where we couldn’t get the capture bar on the Intelsat VI, and the ground [controllers] and our crew came up with the idea of three people going out. With the teamwork and great ground team support, it worked slick.”