KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The 18th class of space shuttle astronauts were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Saturday.

• Dr. Janet Kavandi, Col. James Buchli inducted in astronaut hall of fame
• This is KSC's 18th hall of fame class, bringing total astronauts at 99
• RELATED: Rocket launch schedule | Space News

This is a moment decades in the making, two of the space programs finest inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame bringing the total number of astronauts in this society to 99.

For Dr. Janet Kavandi says it all started with a dream while sitting next to her dad looking up at the sky.

“We would always look outside at the stars; it was those initial observations of those first satellites flying overhead and that inspired to me to want to do that,” she said.

Kavandi’s first flight, STS-91, was aboard Discovery in June 1998. She served as a Mission Specialist.

Her second flight, STS-99, was aboard Endeavor in February 2000. She served as a Mission Specialist and as the flight engineer for the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. She told Spectrum News during this mission the international crew mapped more than 47 million miles of the Earth’s land.

Her final flight was STS-104 aboard Atlantis in July 2001. She was a Mission Specialist and served as the flight engineer, and she filmed footage for the “Space Station 3D” IMAX movie. She also helped the families after the Columbia tragedy with support for more than a decade.

Col. James Buchli was commissioned as a United States Marine Corps Officer after returning from Vietnam. He attended naval flight officer school, and in 1977, he was assigned to the United States Test Pilot School.

But for him, flying high in the sky wasn't high enough.

“I was in test pilot school and NASA came out with their first call for candidates for the shuttle program, so we said, ‘Let's go for it,’” he explained.

His first flight was onboard Discovery for mission STS-51C in January of 1985 as a Mission Specialist. His second flight onboard Challenger for mission STS-61A.

His third mission was in March 1989 onboard Discovery for mission STS-29 where he helped with loading film for the IMAX movie “Blue Planet.” His final mission was onboard Discovery for mission STS-48 in September 1991.

“Really share with people what we could see in orbit, yup that’s what it was like to see the earth in that perspective,” Buchli said, talking about his role in the movie.

“It’s very fast to get high resolution pictures, so we trained to change film in space in these dark bags and set up the lighting,” Kavandi said, also talking about being part of providing footage to IMAX.

She spent more than 33 days in space completing more than 535 earth orbits, and Colonel Buchli spent more than 21 days in orbit. He is also a Purple Heart recipient.