A group from the first graduating class of astronauts after the Apollo program gathers at the Banana River viewing site.

A group from the first graduating class of astronauts after the Apollo program gathers at the Banana River viewing site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center before the launch of space shuttle Discovery on its STS-124 mission. In 1978 a new group of 35 astronauts was selected after nine years without new astronauts. The pilots were Daniel Brandenstein, Michael Coats, Richard Covey, John Creighton, Robert Gibson, Frederick D. Gregory, Frederick Hauck, Jon McBride, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Brewster Shaw, Loren Shriver, David Walker and Donald Williams. The mission specialists were Guion Bluford, James Buchli, John Fabian, Anna Fisher, Dale Gardner, S. David Griggs, Terry Hart, Steven Hawley, Jeffrey Hoffman, Shannon Lucid, Ronald McNair, Richard Mullane, Steven Nagel, George Nelson, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon, Robert Stewart, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Norman Thagard and James van Hoften. Since then, a new group has been selected roughly every two years. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann