Vance Brand & Don Peterson Signed T-38 Shuttle Training Aircraft, White Sands View Watchlist >
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Lot # Nasa110F
System ID # 29520010
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Vance Brand & Don Peterson Signed T-38 Shuttle Training Aircraft Cover, White Sands 1978
Before any astronaut climbed into the Space Shuttle, they climbed into a T-38. The supersonic Northrop trainer was the currency of astronaut proficiency — flown hard and often, at airfields across the country, keeping reflexes sharp for a vehicle that demanded everything. On December 20, 1978, two of NASA's active corps touched down at White Sands Missile Range for back-to-back training flights, and someone was there with a cover ready to be signed.
Vance Brand — Apollo-Soyuz, STS-5, STS-41-B, STS-35 — put his name to the top. Don Peterson — STS-6, the first Challenger mission, its inaugural spacewalk — signed below. The flight log typed directly onto the cover records the details with military precision: Brand and K. Heinze flew Tail 902 from 1010 to 1200; Peterson flew Tail 914 from 1025 to 1200. Same sky, same morning, two men working toward the same program. The cover was postmarked that day at White Sands — "Birthplace of America's Space Activity" — and has stayed together ever since.
Authenticity
Both signatures are hand-applied in black ink directly on the cover face and are consistent with known exemplars for each astronaut. A Certificate of Authenticity from Mesilla Valley Estate Sales will be issued with this lot.
Collector's Note
The pairing here matters. Brand and Peterson weren't contemporaries by accident — they were colleagues in the same active corps, flying the same program, on the same morning at the same installation. A single astronaut signature on a T-38 cover is a training artifact. Two signatures, from two astronauts who each commanded distinct chapters of Shuttle history, recorded on the day it happened, transforms the cover into a document of the program itself. Brand brought Apollo experience into the Shuttle era; Peterson would take the first Shuttle EVA. Their names together on a White Sands cover from December 1978 place this squarely in the years NASA was building toward STS-1 — and both men were there for what came after.
CONDITION
Very Good. Cover is clean and bright with crisp cachet printing and bold, legible signatures. Light handling visible; faint corner bend at upper right near the stamp. Postmark is slightly light at the lower arc. Reverse is unmarked.
DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS
- 3 5/8" × 6 1/2"
- Postmark: White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex., Dec. 20, 1978
- Franking: 15¢ USA flag airmail stamp
- Signatures: Vance Brand, Don Peterson (black ink, hand-applied)
- COA: Certificate of Authenticity from Mesilla Valley Estate Sales included
