Franklin Story Musgrave is a man of great accomplishment, the winner of countless awards, including the Phi Delta Theta Distinguished Alumnus Award presented in 1994, and the recipient of many other honors. He is a doctor, a retired astronaut, a public speaker and consultant to both The Walt Disney Company Imagineering Group and Applied Minds in California. Throughout his career, Musgrave has launched into many things: his education, unique hobbies, new careers, and most notably, outer space.

Musgrave entered the United States Marine Corps in 1953 where he flew over 18,000 hours in 160 different types of civilian and military aircraft, including 7,500 hours in jet aircraft. Also an accomplished parachutist, he has made more than 500 free falls – including over 100 experimental free-fall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics.

In August 1967, he was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA and flew on the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Challenger, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 4, 1983. He retired from NASA in 1997, after completing 6 Shuttle missions which makes him the only astronaut to have flown missions on all five Space Shuttles and has him recording 1,281 hours 59 minutes, 22 seconds in space.