Dale Allan Gardner was a NASA astronaut who flew two Space Shuttle missions during the early 1980s.

Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid is an American biochemist and a retired NASA astronaut. At one time, she held the record for the longest duration stay in space by an American, as well as by a woman. She has flown in space five times including a prolonged mission aboard the Mir space station in 1996; she is the only American woman to have served aboard Mir.

Ronald Erwin McNair was an American physicist and NASA astronaut. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and two children. His kids were Joy Charey Mcnair (Daughter) and Reginald Ervin Mcnair (son).

Richard Michael "Mike" Mullane is an engineer and aircraft pilot, a retired USAF officer. and a former NASA astronaut. During his career, he flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-D, STS-27, and STS-36.

George Driver "Pinky" Nelson is an American physicist, astronomer, science educator, and a former NASA astronaut.

Ellison Shoji Onizuka (鬼塚 承次 Onizuka Shōji) was an American astronaut from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, on which he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L. He was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space.

Judith Arlene Resnik was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut, who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during the launch of mission STS-51-L. Recognised while still a child for her "intellectual brilliance",[1] Resnik went on to work for RCA as an engineer on NASA missile and radar projects, was a senior systems engineer for Xerox Corporation, and published research on special purpose integrated circuitry, before she was recruited by NASA to the astronaut program as a mission specialist at age 28. While training on the astronaut program, she developed software and operating procedures for NASA missions.[2] She was also a pilot and made research contributions to biomedical engineering, as a research fellow of biomedical engineering at the National Institutes of Health. Initially planning to be a concert pianist, Resnik had turned down a place at the Juilliard School of Music, choosing instead to study mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University after being one of only 16 girls in the United States to have attained 100% scores in her SAT exams at the time. She went on to graduate from Carnegie Institute of Technology in electrical engineering, before graduating with a Ph.D. magna cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. Resnik was the second American woman in space, and the fourth woman in space worldwide, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was also the first Jewish American in space, and the first Jewish woman of any nationality in space. The IEEE Judith Resnik Award for space engineering is named in her honor.

Sally Kristen Ride was an American astronaut, physicist, and engineer. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego as a professor of physics, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, the only person to participate in both. Ride died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012.

Margaret Rhea Seddon is a physician and retired NASA astronaut. After being selected as part of the first group of astronauts to include women, she flew on three Space Shuttle flights: as mission specialist for STS-51-D and STS-40, and as payload commander for STS-58. Both before and after her career in the astronaut program, she has been active in the medical community in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas.

Robert Lee Stewart is a retired brigadier general of the United States Army and a former NASA astronaut.

Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. A crew member on three Space Shuttle missions, she was the first American woman to walk in space on October 11, 1984. She was Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 6, 2014. Sullivan's tenure ended on January 20, 2017 with the swearing in of President Donald Trump. Following completion of her service at NOAA, she was designated as the 2017 Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, and has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

James Dougal Adrianus "Ox" van Hoften, Ph.D. is an American civil and hydraulic engineer, retired U.S. Navy officer and aviator, and a former astronaut for NASA.