As if being an astronaut isn't cool enough, John Grunsfeld will soon join Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the elite band of space explorer legends.
After five space shuttle missions, the Chicago native and Highland Park High School graduate will be inducted this spring into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, officials with the Kennedy Space Center have announced.
Grunsfeld's space resume includes eight spacewalks, three trips to repair the Hubble Space Telescope and flights on Endeavour, Atlantis, Discovery and Columbia.
In total, he spent more than 58 days traveling the cosmos.
Grunsfeld said he's humbled by the distinction, though he admits he's still "trying to figure out what it means."
"The biggest honor is to be an astronaut," said Grunsfeld, 56. "It's such a tremendous privilege to be able to represent humankind in our quest to explore space."
His efforts earned him the nickname "The Hubble Repairman," which is how President Barack Obama referred to him in 2009. "Not to be mistaken with the Maytag Repairman," Obama joked at the time.
Born in Chicago, Grunsfeld spent his early years in Hyde Park before his family moved to Highland Park. His grandfather, architect Ernest Grunsfeld Jr., designed the original building of Chicago's Adler Planetarium. As soon as Grunsfeld learned to ride a bike, he often would make his way to the Museum of Science and Industry.
He declared that he would become an astronaut at age 6 or 7.
"My mom thought it was great because I would probably be inspired to study math and science, but I would never be an astronaut so she didn't have to worry about the risk," Grunsfeld said. "Fortunately, she lived long enough to see me fly in space two times."
Before her passing, Grunsfeld's mother Sally Grunsfeld worked as a naturalist at the Morton Arboretum and the Chicago Botanic Garden. His father, Ernest Grunsfeld III, a well-known architect of modernist homes found mainly on the North Shore, died in 2011.
"He was also extremely proud," Grunsfeld said. "But I'm told he was a wreck worrying about me (when I was on a mission)."
One looming risk for any astronaut is an engine exploding, so Grunsfeld developed a ritual before every flight to assuage the threat. Before his 2002 mission, his father stood beside him while he completed the tradition.
"I'd stand under the engine bells…and whisper nice things to the engines and ask them to take care of me," Grunsfeld said. "They did."
After graduating from Highland Park High School in 1976, Grunsfeld received his bachelor's from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to receive a master's and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago.
Michael Turner, a U. of C. professor of astrophysics, was teaching at the university at the time. The two have stayed in touch over the years.
"He's someone that Chicago can be really proud of," Turner said. "He really represents what NASA inspires people to do: Serve the nation. Serve science."
Grunsfeld met his wife Carol while in high school, but when he finally got up the nerve to ask her out, she politely declined. Back from college one summer, he asked again. It wasn't until a chance meeting on Clark Street while he was in graduate school that she agreed to dinner.
"He's persistent," Carol Grunsfeld said with a chuckle. They married in 1989. At the time she thought he was destined to be a college professor.
Carol Grunsfeld, who also works at NASA as a project manager, said they try not to bring work home, but the values they hold transcend both spheres.
"We've taught our children to be environmentally conscious, to see the planet as a system we have to maintain," she said.
Both kids, Sarah, 18, and Mace, 17, are interested in the sciences and both have scuba certification.
Grunsfeld's journey with NASA began in 1992 and spanned more than a decade. In 2003, he was named NASA chief scientist.
Family dinners in Highland Park, where the Schiffs have lived for more than 50 years, are surprisingly typical, father-in-law David Schiff said.
"We talk about the family, the kids," David Schiff said. "He's very dedicated to his family and his job."
Grunsfeld retired in 2010 from NASA to teach physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and help lead the Space Telescope Science Institute.
"He's a remarkable individual. If he wants to get something done, he gets it done, even if he's traveling at 17,000 miles an hour in a vacuum," said Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Mountain recalled Grunsfeld's final mission in space. He was tasked once again to make Hubble repairs, but the complex mission was taking longer than anticipated, and there wasn't enough time to complete the last few things on a long to-do list, Mountain said.
But then something strange happened. The ground team noticed that the space toilets were being used earlier than planned. Without telling mission control, Grunsfeld awakened the rest of the crew two or three hours ahead of schedule, Mountain said.
"Every objective was achieved," Mountain said. "Those last things that they got done is why Hubble is working so superbly today."
Despite Grunsfeld's success at the Space Telescope Science Institute, NASA's pull proved too strong — insert gravity joke here — and he returned in 2012 to NASA to become the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate.
The two questions that drive him to continue his work are understanding whether we are alone in the universe and if human life is sustainable long-term on earth.
Grunsfeld's honor is well-deserved, said Edward "Rocky" Kolb, University of Chicago dean of physical sciences.
"If there was ever an astronaut you would say is a down-to-earth guy, it's him," Kolb said.
Along with Grunsfeld, Steven Lindsey, Kent Rominger and Dr. M. Rhea Seddon also will be inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in May.
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