Ernst Messerschmid's flown sterling silver STS-61-A Robbins medal, approximately 1.75″ x 1.5″, with a raised design on the face featuring the mission insignia, and the reverse is encircled by the names of the astronauts and is engraved with the launch date of October 30, 1985, and landing date of November 6, 1985, at “RW 17 Edwards AFB, CA.” The medal is serial numbered "51F" on the rim. Condition is mint state. Accompanied by its original matching case and by a signed letter of authenticity from Messerschmid, in part: "This Silver Robbins Medal was flown for me by NASA on Space Shuttle mission STS-61A…After the space flight, the proper launch and landing dates were engraved on the medal, also the serial No. 51F to complete the respective details. NASA awarded and presented this specific medal to me.”
From 1978 to 1982, Ernst Messerschmid worked on space-borne communications at the German Aerospace Center. The following year, he was selected as one of the astronauts for the first German Spacelab mission, Deutschland 1, which was the non-NASA designation for the STS-61-A mission. Messerschmid accrued over 168 hours in space as a payload specialist during STS-61-A, which proved to be the ninth and last successful flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The mission also holds the current record for the largest crew—eight people—aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
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