CAPTAIN ROBERT L. "HOOT" GIBSON - COMMEMORATIVE ENVELOPE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: BILL NELSON, STEVEN A. HAWLEY, ROBERT J. CENKER, FRANKLIN F. CHANG-DIAZ, MAJOR GENERAL CHARLES F. BOLDEN JR., GEORGE D. NELSON - HFSID 51514

SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA (61-C) CREW: ROBERT L. GIBSON, CHARLES F. BOLDEN, JR., FRANKLIN R. CHANG-DIAZ, STEVEN A. HAWLEY, GEORGE D. NELSON, ROBERT J. CENKER and BILL NELSON
The Space Shuttle Columbia (61-C) Crew signs a philatelic envelope for the Columnia OV102 mission.
Philatelic Envelope signed: "Robert L. Gibson", "Bob Cenker", "Steven A Hawley", "Chas Bolden Jr.", "George Nelson", "FR Chang Diaz" and "Bill Nelson", 6½x3½. Commemorative Cover for the Columbia OV102 mission, 22-cent flag stamp affixed, pictorially postmarked Kennedy Space Center, January 12, 1986. The space shuttle Columbia OV102 was launched on mission 61-C from the Kennedy Space Center on January 12, 1986. The oldest of NASA's orbiters, Columbia made 98 orbits during its six day, two hour, three minute and 51 second flight, covering 2,528,658 miles before landing at Edwards Air Force Base on January 18 (attempts to land at the Kennedy Space Center were aborted due to bad weather). The crew on the mission included ROBERT L. "HOOT" GIBSON, the mission's Commander, who was making his second shuttle flight, Pilot CHARLES F. BOLDEN, JR. (on his maiden space voyage), FRANKLIN R. CHANG-DIAZ and STEVEN A. HAWLEY, Mission Specialists 1, GEORGE D. NELSON, Mission Specialist 2, and ROBERT J. CENKER, Payload Specialist 1. Also part of the crew was Florida Democratic Congressman BILL NELSON, the Chairman of the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Applications, as Payload Specialist 2. Navy pilot Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson, who was selected by NASA in January 1978 and became an astronaut in August 1979, had previously been aboard Challenger (STS 41-B), February 3-11, 1984, which made the first landing on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center. This was his first and last Columbia mission; his subsequent three flights were aboard Atlantis (STS-27), December 2-6, 1988 and Atlantis (STS-71), June 27-July 7, 1995, the first space shuttle to dock with the Russian space station, Mir and Endeavor (STS-47), September 12-20, 1992, the 50th space shuttle mission. Columbia, which was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in March 1979 and first orbited in 1981, exploded over Texas on February 1, 2003 as it was returning to the Kennedy Space Center during its 28th flight. Light "haloing" around the signatures of Cenker, Chang-Diaz and both Nelsons. Fine condition,