Bidspirit auction | Astronaut George Simon STS-51-F NASA

Astronaut George Simon STS-51-F NASA signed commemorative cover. Dr. Simon was a U.S. Air Force Research scientist at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory on August 9, 1978, when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut. He was as a backup Space Shuttle Payload Specialist for the Spacelab 2 mission (STS-51F), flown from July 29 to August 6, 1985. Dr. Simon had devised one of the experiments performed during the mission, the Solar Optical Universe Polarimeter (SOUP). This observed the strength, structure, and evolution of magnetic fields in the sun's photosphere to determine the relationship between these magnetic elements and other solar features. Simon also served as the communicator to the astronaut crew during that mission, ensuring the success of the SOUP experiment. He was scheduled to fly aboard Sunlab 1, the follow-up mission to Spacelab 2, however, that mission was postponed indefinitely. Dr. Simon left the astronaut corps on August 6, 1985. In 1993, he helped write an Air Force report on the Mechanisms of Solar Variability (MSV) Program, which aims toward understanding physical causes of variations in the radiative, magnetic, and particle emissions from the Sun. The author of 50 scientific papers, George W. Simon has been named a Fellow of the U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory, the Laboratory's highest award for scientific and engineering achievements.