At a time when Eastern European politics has strained the relationship between the United States' and Russia's space programs, the only American woman to serve aboard the Russian Space Station Mir now has a spot in the U.S. Space Hall of Fame.

Astronaut Shannon Lucid and fellow astronaut Jerry Ross, the first human to complete seven space shuttle missions, were inducted into the hall Saturday, May 3, in ceremony held in the Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The now-retired Lucid and Ross, according to a news release, were selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to become astronauts within two years of each other -- Lucid in 1978 and Ross in 1980.

Lucid was part of the first U.S. astronaut class to include women and held the record for the most flight hours in orbit by a female astronaut (5,354 hours, or 223 days) until 2007.

Lucid -- whose first shuttle mission in June 1985 was on Space Shuttle Discovery's mission STS-51-G, after which she also flew on shuttle missions STS-34 in 1989, STS-43 in 1991 and STS-58 in 1993 -- rode aboard Atlantis for her historic tour of duty on the Mir space station in 1996.

President Bill Clinton presented Lucid with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for her service aboard Mir, making her the first woman to receive the award.

Ross was the first to break the world record for being the first human launched into space seven times.

He flew as a mission specialist on STS 61-B (1985), STS-27 (1988) and STS-37 (1991), served as payload commander for STS-55/Spacelab-D2 (1993), and again as a mission specialist on the second space shuttle to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir, STS-74 (1995).

Ross flew on the first International Space Station assembly mission, STS-88 (1998) and again on STS-110 (2002).

In all, Ross logged over 1,393 hours in space, including 58 hours and 18 minutes on nine extra-vehicular activities, otherwise known as space walks.

As new inductees of the Hall of Fame, Lucid and Ross are in the company other space pioneers including Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Jim Lovell, Sally Ride and John Young.

The addition of Lucid and Ross brings the number of space explorers enshrined in the Hall of Fame to 87.