Bidspirit auction | Astronaut Helen Sharman signed 1988

Astronaut Helen Sharman signed 1988 STS26 Launch Day cover with Crew logo and details on cover. 29/9/1988 Long Beach Postmark. Soyuz TM11, TM12 Helen Patricia Sharman is a British chemist and cosmonaut who became the first British person, first Western European woman and first privately funded woman in space, as well as the first woman to visit the Mir space station, in May 1991. STS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was declared the ”Return to Flight” mission, being the first mission after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986. It was the first mission since STS-9 to use the original Space Transportation System (STS) numbering system, the first to have all its crew members wear pressure suits for launch and landing since STS-4, and the first mission with bailout capacity since STS-4. STS-26 was also the first U.S. space mission with an all-veteran crew since Apollo 11, with all of its crew members having flown at least one prior mission.