JUDITH A. "JUDY" RESNIK - COMMEMORATIVE ENVELOPE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: CAPTAIN ROBERT "BOB" CRIPPEN - HFSID 86819

JUDY RESNIK and BOB CRIPPEN
Judy Resnik and Bob Crippen sign a commemorative envelope honoring the Grumman Gulfstream II, Shuttle Training Aircraft.
Envelope signed: "Judy Resnik", 6½x3½. Co-signed: "Bob Crippen". Commemorative envelope honoring the Grumman Gulfstream II, Shuttle Training Aircraft, U.S. "A" stamp affixed, postmarked White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, August 12, 1978. JUDY RESNIK (1949-1986), the first Jewish astronaut, first flew as a mission specialist on STS 41-D, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on August 30, 1984. This was the maiden flight of the orbiter Discovery. During this seven-day mission, the crew successfully activated the OAST-1 solar cell wing experiment, deployed three satellites and operated the CFES-III student crystal growth experiment and the photography experiments using the IMAX motion picture camera. On the morning of January 28, 1986, 72 seconds after liftoff, the second in a series of NASA's manned orbiting space shuttles exploded. Resnik and six fellow Challenger STS 51-L crew members were killed. In the 25-year history of the NASA Programs, three tragedies have occurred: the first claimed the lives of three astronauts during a launch pad fire; the second, the catastrophe of Challenger - one day after the nineteenth anniversary of Apollo 1; and the third, the explosion of Columbia STS-107 killing all seven astronauts, 16 minutes from home. BOB CRIPPEN, pilot, and John Young, commander, were the crew of the Columbia, the first U.S. Space Shuttle mission, April 12-14, 1981. This was the first flight of a reusable space shuttle and the first landing of a U.S. spacecraft on land. Columbia, STS-1, was launched exactly 20 years after the flight of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Fine condition.