STS 41-D Discovery Maiden Flight Signed by Charles Walker, Payload Specialist View Watchlist >
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Lot # Nasa110K
System ID # 29520988
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STS 41-D Discovery Maiden Flight Cover Signed by Charles Walker, Payload Specialist — Grumman Aerospace
On August 30, 1984, Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off for the first time — and riding aboard was Charles Walker, a McDonnell Douglas engineer who had no business being there by any prior definition of who got to go to space. He wasn't a test pilot. He wasn't a government astronaut. He was a corporate payload specialist, the first of his kind, flying to operate his own company's electrophoresis experiment in orbit. NASA had opened a door, and Walker walked through it. This cover was postmarked June 26, 1984 — two months before launch, when the mission was still anticipation — and Walker signed it in bold black ink, adding "Payload Specialist" in his own hand beneath.
The cachet carries the full STS 41-D mission emblem: the orbiter climbing past a tall ship over a stylized globe, ringed with the names of all six crew members — Hartsfield, Coats, Mullane, Hawley, Resnik, and Walker. It is franked with a 20¢ Flag Over Supreme Court stamp and cancelled at Bethpage, N.Y. — home of Grumman Aerospace Corp., whose maroon backstamp on the reverse reads "Builder of the Shuttle Wing." The piece connects three threads of American aerospace history in one envelope: the maiden flight of the most-flown orbiter in the Shuttle program, the moment corporate America first sent one of its own into orbit, and the Long Island contractor whose wings made it possible.
Authenticity
A Certificate of Authenticity from Mesilla Valley Estate Sales will be issued with this lot.
CONDITION
Very Good. Cachet crisp, cancellation clear, and signature bold and fully legible. Light handling to the envelope overall; old mounting residue with minor toning to the verso flap area.
DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS
- 3 5/8" × 6 1/2"
- Postmark: Bethpage, N.Y., June 26, 1984
- Frank: 20¢ Flag Over Supreme Court
- Signed: Charles Walker, Payload Specialist (black ink)
- Verso backstamp: Grumman Aerospace Corp., Bethpage, N.Y. — "Builder of the Shuttle Wing"
- COA: Mesilla Valley Estate Sales
