Bidspirit auction | Astronaut Jon McBride signed Boeing

Astronaut Jon McBride signed Boeing 747 Space Shuttle Aircraft FDC PM Edwards, CA May 25 AM 1977 93523. Missions STS-41-G. Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978, McBride became an astronaut in August 1979, the first astronaut from West Virginia. His NASA assignments included lead chase pilot for the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Columbia, software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, capsule communicator for STS-5, STS-6, and STS-7, flight data file manager, and orbital rendezvous procedures development. McBride was the pilot of STS-41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on October 5, 1984, aboard the Orbiter Challenger. This was the first crew of seven, at the time the largest crew ever sent into space. During their eight-day mission, crew members deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of the Earth with the OSTA-3 pallet and Large Format Camera, and demonstrated potential satellite refueling with an EVA and associated hydrazine transfer. The mission duration was 197 hours and concluded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on October 13, 1984. McBride was scheduled to fly again in March 1986 as the commander of STS-61-E. This flight was one of several deferred by NASA in the wake of the Challenger accident in January 1986.