Chicago-born man to be inducted into Astronaut Hall of Fame

John H. Grunsfeld, Ph.D / photo from NASA website

(CHICAGO) A retired NASA astronaut who was born in Chicago and worked on the Hubble Telescope will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in May, according to a statement from the Kennedy Space Center.

John H. Grunsfeld, Ph.D, was born in Chicago and graduated from Highland Park High School in the northern suburb in 1976, according to his astronaut bio on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration website.

Grunsfeld then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1980; then attended the University of Chicago, where he received a master of science degree and a doctor of philosophy degree in physics, according to NASA.

He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1992 and logged more than 58 days in space on five separate flights, according to the statement. On his last three missions, Grunsfeld worked to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Grunsfeld, who is married with two children, retired from NASA in December 2009 to become the Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute and a professor at Johns Hopkins University, according to the statement.

He rejoined NASA in 2012 and is currently the Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. His father still lives in Highland Park.

Grunsfeld, along with Steven Lindsey, Kent Rominger, and M. Rhea Seddon, M.D., will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30.