Bidspirit auction | Astronaut Paul Scully-Power signed STS-41-G

Astronaut Paul Scully-Power signed STS-41-G Challenger commemorative cover. In June 1984, Scully-Power was chosen by NASA to be a Payload Specialist (known among the crew affectionately as a blanket counter) on the 13th Shuttle mission, which would study Earth Sciences. His space flight STS-41-G Challenger (October 5-13, 1984) was launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. STS-41-G was the first mission with a 7-person crew, and the first to demonstrate American orbital fuel transfer. During the 8-day flight, the crew 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. At mission conclusion, Scully-Power had traveled over 3.4 million miles in 133 Earth orbits, and logged over 197 hours in space. His role was to investigate spiral eddies, which at the time were thought to be rare. He was able to photograph them with an ordinary camera, and show that they were ubiquitous. NASA initially expected him to shave his beard before spaceflight, but allowed it after he was able to demonstrate that it did not affect his helmet's seal.