CAL POLY - He commanded four space shuttle missions and served with the first American group to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

Now Cal Poly alumnus Robert "Hoot" Gibson will boldly go where only 48 others have gone before -- to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Gibson last week was selected for the hall along with former space shuttle commander Daniel Brandenstein and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

"It's a real thrill," said Gibson, 56, in a phone interview from his home in Tennessee. "I can't believe they're calling me this early. I thought maybe I'd be inducted in 10 years."

Former Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, will present Gibson with the honor in a June 21 ceremony at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

Gibson participated in the 1986 Challenger accident investigation. Recently, he briefed the Columbia Accident Investigation Board on shuttle re-entry and exterior tile damage in relation to the Columbia's disintegration in February.

Gibson, a 1969 Cal Poly aeronautical engineering graduate, was an officer of the engineering honor fraternity Sigma Gamma Tau and the Cal Poly chairman of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He became a Navy combat pilot and served 18 years with NASA, including a three-year stint as the agency's chief astronaut. Gibson retired from NASA in 1993 and now flies planes for Southwest Airlines.