KARL G. HENIZE - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: PHILIP K. CHAPMAN, COLONEL KAROL J. BOBKO, ANTHONY ENGLAND, JOHN S. BULL, F. CURTIS MICHEL - HFSID 48197

NASA ASTRONAUTS
This first day cover honoring Skylab is signed by six NASA astronauts in different colors of ink
First Day Cover signed: "Karl G. Henize", "Phil Chapman", "John S. Bull", "Karol J. Bobko", "Tony England" and "F.C.S. Michel". 6½x3½. FDC honoring Skylab  and bearing 10-cent stamp. Postmarked Houston, TX, May 14, 1974, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. ANTHONY WAYNE ENGLAND (b. 1942) is a former NASA astronaut who was selected in 1967 as part of a group of astronauts who served as backups during the Apollo and Skylab programs. Like most others in his class, he flew during the Space Shuttle program, serving as a mission specialist on STS-51F in 1985. England has logged more than 3,000 hours of flying time and 188 hours in space. He helped develop and use radars to probe the Moon on Apollo 17 and glaciers in Washington and Alaska, and participated in and led field parties during two seasons in Antarctica. Anthony England is currently dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus. Australian-born PHILIP KENYON CHAPMAN (b. 1935) was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in 1967. After initial academic training and a 53-week course in flight training at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, he was involved in preparations for lunar missions, serving as mission scientist for the Apollo 14 mission. Because of the lack of space flight opportunities for scientist-astronauts, Dr. Chapman left NASA in July 1972. JOHN BULL (1934-2008) was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1966 after he served nearly ten years in the U.S. Navy.  He resigned from NASA in 1968 after being diagnosed with pulmonary disease, making automatically ineligible to travel to space. He rejoined NASA to conduct research from 1973-1985. FRANK CURTIS MICHEL (1934-2015) is a former astrophysics professor and NASA astronaut. Michel was in the fourth group of astronauts announced in 1965, which was dubbed "The Scientist". He resigned in September 1969 before ever being assigned a mission, choosing instead to return to teaching and research. He taught at several universities after resigning, but spent the majority of his career at Rice University in Texas. KARL GORDON HENIZE (1926-1993) was one of seven astronauts aboard the Challenger STS-51F space shuttle which carried Spacelab 2 and its scientific experiments into space (1985). A noted astronomer, Henize discovered over 2,000 stars in the southern hemisphere (they are marked with "HE" in star catalogs) and was renowned for his photograph of the Large Magellanic Cloud (MGC). In 1993, while climbing Mount Everest on a scientific expedition, Henize died of respiratory and heart failure and was buried at 22,000 feet. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.