Two commemorative covers with color cachets honoring the Space Shuttle Challenger and STS missions 8 and 11 (41-B), postmarked on either the mission launch or landing date, each signed in black ballpoint or felt tip by the respective crew: Richard Truly, Dan Brandenstein, Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Dale Gardner, and William E. Thornton; and Vance Brand, Robert 'Hoot' Gibson, Bruce McCandless II, Bob Stewart, and Ronald E. McNair. In overall very fine condition. Following STS-9, the flight numbering system for the Space Shuttle program was changed. Thus, the next flight, instead of being designated STS-11, became STS-41-B; the original successor to STS-9, STS-10, was canceled due to payload delays.
An appealing lot given its cast of 10 different astronauts, a group that includes Guion Bluford, the first African American to go to space, Bruce McCandless, who completed the first untethered spacewalk, Vance Brand, the American CMP during the first U.S.-Soviet joint spaceflight, Richard Truly, who was the first former astronaut to head NASA, and Ron McNair, who tragically passed during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L.
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