2026 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Inductee

Raised in Eminence MO, Tom earned his BS and MS degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of MO-Rolla in 1973 and 1975 respectively. Tom was selected by NASA for the astronaut program in 1987.

His first of four shuttle missions was STS-41, where he was the crewmember responsible for the deployment of the Ulysses spacecraft in October 1990.  His second mission was STS-49 in May 1992, the first flight of the new shuttle Endeavour.  He was the Intravehicular (IV) crewmember on the first two EVA attempts to capture the stranded Intelsat VI satellite, and then was the third man on the unplanned first and only three-person EVA that successfully captured Intelsat VI and installed a new rocket motor.  His third mission was STS-61 in December 1993, the first Hubble (HST) repair mission.  He performed two EVAs and served as the IV crewmember for three more that resulted in the successful repair of the HST.  His fourth mission was STS-79 in September 1996.  This was a resupply and crew exchange flight to the Russian space station MIR.   He has accumulated over 800 hours in space and over 29 hours of space walking time. 

2026 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Inductee

Born January 21, 1950, in Danville, Illinois, Joe Tanner earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Illinois before joining the Navy to pursue his passion for flying.

Though very happy flying and supporting missions for eight years, Joe never lost sight of his goal to be an astronaut himself.  After several applications, he was selected as a member of the 1992 astronaut class, Group 14.  During his sixteen-year career as an astronaut, he flew four missions on the Space Shuttle: STS-66 (Atlantis), STS-82 (Discovery), STS-97 (Endeavour), and STS-115 (Atlantis).