Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson

()Gibson flew on five space shuttle missions, including the first docking of a shuttle with the Russian space station Mir. His first flight was aboard Challenger in 1984. The flight was the first in which astronauts tested the Manned Maneuvering Unit. Gibson was in command of a seven-man crew when Columbia was launched in January 1986, deploying a communications satellite, and conducting experiments in astrophysics and materials processing. Later that month, the shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff, killing its seven-person crew. He participated in the investigation of the accident and contributed to the redesign of the solid fuel rocket boosters which caused the disaster. He greeted Cosmonaut Vladimir N. Dezhurov, the commander of Mir-18. This historic rendezvous paved the way for future dockings with Mir and the International Space Station. Gibson flew the second mission after the Challenger explosion, commanding a five-person Atlantis crew on a 1988 classified military mission. “Hoot” Gibson was enshrined into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2013 and was inducted into the U.S. Astronauts Hall of Fame in 2003. “Hoot” Gibson is and aeronautical engineer and test pilot; flew combat missions as a “Top Gun” Navy Pilot; was a Captain for Southwest Airlines; and has set records as a pilot at the Reno Air Races. He has over 14,000 of fight time in more that 140 types of aircraft.