WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- Curtis Brown from Bladen County was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame over the weekend.
He has spent a total of 57 days in space. Curtis Brown has had six spaceflights from 1992 to 1999.
Brown is one of three astronauts in the 12th groupd of legendary space shuttle astronauts, for a total of 85 in the Hall of Fame. They were chosen by a committee of current Hall of Fame astronauts, former NASA officials, flight directors, historians and journalists.
Brown says it was a very big and overwhelming day for him.
"I never imagined as a small kid growing up wanting to fly that I'd ever be in this position to be. First of all I was very lucky to have the shuttle missions that I had and today to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is just beyond belie," Brown says.
Brown served as the Astronaut Office Lead of shuttle operations and Deputy Director of the flight crew operations directorate while he was at NASA.
Brown retired from NASA to accept a position from the private sector.
The Curtis L. Brown Jr. Field Airport in Elizabethtown is named after him.