A member of Dr. Wernher von Braun's team of German rocket scientists and a 20-year-old U.S. soldier twice wounded in Iraq are among six people who will be inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame during a banquet on July 19.
The Hall of Fame was created in 2007 during Space Camp's year-long celebration of its 25th anniversary, U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO Larry Capps said this morning while announcing this year's honorees. Eight people were inducted during a dinner last year at the Von Braun Center that featured William Shatner acting as emcee.
The 2008 event will also feature special guests and will be held beneath the stages and engines of the giant Saturn V in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Tickets start at $40.
The Hall of Fame banquet is part of a special reunion camp weekend of events at the Space Center, Capps said. The annual Saturn/Apollo reunion will be Friday, July 18, and more than 1,000 former engineers and others who worked in the program are expected to come out and reminisce over barbecue and hear from special guests, Capps said.
The hall of fame banquet is July 19 and on Sunday, July 20, there will be graduation for the Alumni Camp.
The 2008 Space Camp Hall of Fame inductees are:
* Oscar Holderer, the youngest member of the original German rocket team, who also designed and built many of the original training simulators used by NASA and at Space Camp.
* Marlenn Maicki, dean of the Detroit (Mich.) Country Day School, who has shared her love of science by bringing more than 2,000 students to Space Camp.
* Lisa DeVries, a former Space Camp counselor who now helps decide whether all safety concerns have been met prior to each space shuttle launch.
* Vincent Vazzo, a Space Camp graduate and former counselor who now writes software for NASA to analyze shuttle launch images. He also owns and maintains the most comprehensive and informative unofficial website for Space Camp.
* Capt. Phillip Smith, a graduate of Space Camp, Space Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who now serves as the second-ever Air Force F-15E demonstration pilot,
* Army Specialist Josh Whitfield, who has won the Aviation Challenge Right Stuff Award five times and the Top Gun Award twice, and who at the age of 20, has twice distinguished himself in combat in Iraq and whose actions are credited with saving the lives of numerous American soldiers.
For tickets, package prices or more information about the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame Banquet and the Saturn/Apollo Reunion, visit www.spacecamp.com/reunionweekend