In 1978, NASA named Terry Hart ’68 a member of “Group 8” – the first selection of Space Shuttle astronaut candidates in nine years. As a mission specialist aboard the STS 41-C Challenger in April 1984, Hart operated a robotic arm that retrieved the Solar Maximum Satellite for repairs and filmed footage for an IMAX movie titled The Dream is Alive (1985).

After retiring from NASA in 1985, Hart, a former Air Force fighter pilot, had a successful career in telecommunications. He retired as president of Loral Skynet to join Lehigh’s engineering faculty in 2004.

Hart currently teaches courses on aircraft design and performance, and his current research activities include spacecraft attitude determination and trajectory optimization and Lehigh's NASA Hopper Spacecraft Simulator project. Visitors to the office of the dean of the College of Engineering in Packard Lab can see the Lehigh banner Hart carried with him on his space flight.