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Dick Scobee (NASA, Challenger Disaster) - Real or Autopen?

Hi there,

I came across this Dick Scobee autograph and I was wondering whether it is hand-signed or an autopen. I was researching on the net but could not find an identical signature, so I was confident.

On the other hand, it is very suspicious that the photo has been stamped on the day of the Challenger disaster.

Thanks for your opinions!

Tags: Challenger, dick, disaster, scobee

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Permalink Reply by Mike White on October 14, 2017 at 8:10am

On the other hand, it is very suspicious that the photo has been stamped on the day of the Challenger disaster.

Why?

The day of the disaster was the day of the launch. Scobee had 2 launches, so the picture has 2 launch day postmarks. I'm not seeing what's so suspicious about that.

It is a bit odd that the 51-L is from Houston instead of KSC like the 41-C, but even that point doesn't, in my mind, rise to the level of "suspicious".

There's going to be a decent amount of signed material with disaster date postmarks for both failed shuttle missions, because the dates were significant to the missions (launch for 51-L, landing for 107).

It's also worth noting that unlike the Apollo 1 fire, the 51-L explosion was in the morning, leaving a not insignificant amount of time for collectors to take even unplanned materials to the post office. In this case, the postmark doesn't specify AM or PM. Plus, the fact that it's a Houston postmark leaves me to believe it may not have been planned, but the 41-C postmark makes me second guess that.

Either way, it's not that weird, and, like I said, not impossible.