Tom Akers and Joe Tanner were inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame together on May 16th, marking a long-awaited recognition for their spacewalk expertise.
Tanner, who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1992 after missing out on his first selection, noted that Akers had always been ahead of him. 'I have never understood why it took NASA so long to pick him,' Tanner quipped during a joint interview with collectSPACE.com.
Their spaceflight careers overlapped for five years, each making four missions. Despite not flying together in orbit, their personal lives were closely intertwined—sharing the same church and having families who were friends.
Twenty years after their final flights, Akers expressed his pleasant surprise at being inducted, while Tanner admitted he had been on the ballot with Tom for 10 years.
The induction ceremony coincided with the 34th anniversary of Akers' historic spacewalk on STS-49. On this mission, he secured a communications satellite alongside Rick Hieb and Pierre Thuot in what remains the only three-person spacewalk to date.
