Brentwood Home Page news reports
Astronaut Hoot Gibson, a former space shuttle commander, will visit Hobby Lobby in Brentwood on Tuesday, June 28.

Hoot Gibson autograph card

Gibson will speak, sign autographs and meet customers at the shop, 5614 Franklin Pike Circle.

In 18 years as an astronaut he flew five space flights, four of them as the mission commander, aboard the space shuttles Challenger, Columbia, Atlantis, and Endeavour, and accumulated over 36 days in space.

His final space flight was the first mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir in 1995. In his career with NASA, he held the positions of deputy chief of NASA Aircraft Operations, chief of the Astronaut Office, and deputy director of Flight Crew Operations.

Gibson, a U.S. Navy captain, graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He served as a Navy Fighter Pilot in F-4 “Phantom” and F-14 “Tomcat” Aircraft and flew combat missions in Southeast Asia, making more than 300 carrier landings aboard the aircraft carriers USS Coral Sea and USS Enterprise.

After attending the Navy Fighter Weapons School “Topgun,” he graduated first in his class at the U. S. Navy Test Pilot School and served as a Flight Test Pilot prior to being selected as an astronaut in 1978 in the first space shuttle astronaut selection.

After leaving NASA and retiring from the U. S. Navy in 1996, Gibson flew for 10 years as an airline pilot with Southwest Airlines. In a flying career covering over 45 years, he has accumulated more than 13,000 hours of flight time in more than 100 types of military and civilian aircraft.

He has been an air race pilot continuously since 1998 in the Reno National Championship Air Races, racing in the Unlimited Class and the Jet Class.

Gibson has received numerous honors, awards and decorations including the DOD Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal (3 awards), the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device, the Humanitarian Service Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal. He has been awarded numerous international medals as well.

He has established six world records for aircraft and three world records for spaceflight.

Capt. Gibson was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003.