posted 07-09-2016 02:17 PM               

Space Cover 376: A Tribute to Astronaut Bob Crippen

NASA Astronaut Robert L. "Bob" Crippen was born in Beaumont, TX on September 11, 1937. His long and very distinguished NASA career was highlighted by flying as the PLT on the first Space Shuttle flight, STS-1, which many consider the boldest and riskiest manned spaceflight ever.

The STS-1 cover above was signed by Bob Crippen for me in person inside the KSC Saturn V Center during the 2005 AHoF Induction Gala. He nicely listed his four Space Shuttle flights.

In 1966, Crippen was chosen as a Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) Astronaut. After the program's cancellation, he and six other MOL Astronauts were chosen in 1969 to form NASA Astronaut Group 7.

In 1972, Crippen, Bill Thornton and Karol Bobko participated in the 56-day SMEAT (Skylab Medical Experiments Altitude Test) that simulated a 56-day Skylab flight and provided useful data for actual Skylab flights. Crippen also served on the Astronaut Support Crew for all three Skylab flights and ASTP.

The top cover was canceled for the Apollo 17 launch and later signed by Crippen and the other Group 7 NASA Astronauts. The bottom cover was signed by the three SMEAT crew members and marks the first day of the 56-day SMEAT isolation simulation in Houston.

In 1981, John Young and Bob Crippen piloted Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia on STS-1, the program's first test flight, and in 1983, Crippen was the Commander of STS-7, the first 5-person Space Shuttle flight, including Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. He was also CDR of STS-41C, the first satellite repair mission, and his last flight, STS-41G, included the first 7-person crew.

The top cover, signed by CDR Young and PLT Crippen, has an STS-1 crew patch/mission emblem cachet and was double canceled for the STS-1 launch at KSC and then for Columbia's landing two days later at Edwards AFB, CA. The STS-7 crew patch cacheted cover at the bottom was signed by the STS-7 crew.

Bob Crippen also served as KSC Director (1992-95) and has received NASA's highest honor: the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

And as these autographed covers attest, he was a friend to us collectors and has long been one of the best and most cooperative of all the astronauts in autographing.

posted 07-09-2016 08:49 PM               

Even before he had been chosen as a NASA astronaut in 1969, as Bob has pointed out, Crippen was already an "astronaut" with the military's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program three years earlier.

A little known fact about Crippen; His wife, Pandora Lee Puckett, was NASA's first female lead shuttle orbiter project engineer for Challenger and Atlantis at the Cape when they first met.

posted 07-10-2016 02:17 PM               

Above is another SMEAT cover postmarked on the day the test started and autographed by the crew - Crippen, Thornton, and Bobko. If you look closely at the handwriting that filled in the cachet blanks, it looks a lot like Crippen's.