SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER - STS - 41C CREW - COMMEMORATIVE ENVELOPE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: CAPTAIN ROBERT "BOB" CRIPPEN, TERRY J. HART, GEORGE D. NELSON, LT. COLONEL DICK (FRANCIS R.) SCOBEE, JAMES D. A. VAN HOFTEN - HFSID 296017

SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER STS-41C MISSION CREW
Commemorative envelope signed by all four surviving crew members: Crippen, Nelson, van Hoften and Hart. An odd collector's item, postmarked where and when the mission was scheduled to land
Commemorative Envelope Signed: "Bob Crippen", "Terry J Hart", "Ox van Hoften", "George Nelson" 6½x3½. Postmarked Kennedy Space Center, April 10, 1984. Space shuttle mission STS-41C, the eleventh orbital flight and the fifth of 10 flights by Challenger, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on April 6, 1984 and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on April 11, one day later than its scheduled return to Kennedy. This mission deployed a Long Duration Exposure Facility and captured, repaired and r-deployed the "Solar Max" satellite (first launched in 1980). The mission Commander was ROBERT CRIPPEN (b.1937), the pilot of the shuttle's first orbital test flight (STS-1), would go into space three more times during 1983 and 1984. After leaving NASA, he became President of Thiokol, which makes rocket engines. Mission Specialist 1 GEORGE D. NELSON (b.1950) would return to space on the orbiters Columbia (1986) and Discovery (1988). He has since returned to academia, focused on improving science education. Mission Specialist 2 James "OX" van HOFTEN (b.1944), naval veteran of 60 combat missions in Vietnam, was making the first of his two shuttle flights, the second coming aboard Discovery in 1985. He left NASA for the Bechtel Company in 1986.  Mission Specialist 3 TERRY D. HART (b.1946), an Air Force pilot, Hart served as Ascent and Orbit CAPCOM with the Mission Control Team for STS-1, STS-2, STS-3 and STS-7 After this Challenger mission, and several engineering management positions, he returned to his alma mater, Lehigh University, to teach aerospace engineering. The fifth crew member, pilot Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee, has not signed. Scobee returned to Challenger as commander on its ill-fated tenth mission, which exploded shortly after takeoff, with the loss of all seven crew members, on January 28, 1986. Fine condition.