The astronauts got the glory but without the 40,000 smart, skilled, dedicated and patriotic Americans working quietly in the background, there wouldn't have been a successful Space Shuttle program.

The US Space Walk of Fame Museum in Florida decided to correct this omission by commissioning and dedicating a 15 foot tall monument made of granite and steel to the ground operation crews that supported the Space Shuttle missions.

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The monument was recently unveiled to Americans that went to see the monument and pay their respects to the quiet heroes that remained on the ground and did their vital jobs while astronauts rode the Space Shuttles into space from 1981 to 2011.

Some 40,000 persons worked on the Space Shuttle program in the three decades the program was operational.

Built at a cost of US$350,000, the monument consists of 8 granite panels that each depict an image recalling a significant moment in the Space Shuttle's history. Atop the granite panel rests a giant steel model of the Space Shuttle.

The monument will remind future generations of the thousands of men and women without whom the Space Shuttle program would have been possible.

The dedication ceremony of the monument was held at the Space View Park near the Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini and the Apollo space missions were present at the dedication of the monument.

Former Space Shuttle workers took the podium to introduce themselves and recount their roles in the Space Shuttle program.

Astronaut Bob Crippen reminisced about his spaceflight career with NASA that began in 1981. He said it was an absolutely great experience to orbit the Earth aboard Columbia on in its first shuttle mission in 1981.

He also noted that even if the Space Shuttle program had two tragedies with the loss of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, the program continued to create milestones with its manned spaceflight missions.

The US Space Shuttle Program began in 1972 with the idea to build a re-usable vehicle to reliably transport astronauts into space. The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, flew into space in 1981

There were five Space Shuttles built over the course of the entire program: Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Columbia, and Endeavor.

Challenger was destroyed at take-off in 1986 while Columbia was lost as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 2003.

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