PORT ANGELES — Former NASA space shuttle astronaut John Fabian of Port Ludlow helped the Mount Olympus District of the Boy Scouts of America raise a record $17,725 at its annual Friends of Scouting breakfast Wednesday at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
Fabian served as a mission specialist on space shuttle flights in June 1983 and June 1985.
He flew with Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, on June 14, 1983, aboard the Challenger.
The former Air Force colonel was also scheduled to fly in May 1986.
But the orbiter fleet was grounded in the wake of the January 1986 shuttle Challenger explosion.
“Liftoff is a thrill, there’s nothing like it,” Fabian told Boy Scouts at the breakfast. “When the shuttle lifts off, you know you are going somewhere.”
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