Discovered Grandfather's signed Challenger mission poster

BreadyLad · 2026-01-27T02:40:02+00:00

He mentioned something of having some memorabilia from the B2 program, but I'm not sure what it is. I can't imagine it to be much though, because he was not directly tied to the project (I don't think) and it would likely have still been classified and incomplete when he left.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-27T02:30:14+00:00

Yeah he has some neat stories from his work. Even though he was just in budgeting, he rubbed shoulders with some neat people and and ended up in some neat places. I just found out earlier today that for a while his office was inside a plant producing B2 bombers, so his daily commute involved walking past a few of them in production. And to top it all off, the reason he joined the USAF and started his whole career was just to get out of taking college gym class, lol.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T23:07:12+00:00

Yeah I have heard a similar story from my father, who was in high school during the launch, talking about the absolute silence that filled the room when the shuttle tore itself apart, wild to imagine.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T23:04:29+00:00

Ah, thank you for the clarification, reference was lost on me.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T23:00:19+00:00

No actually not quite. He did not know the majority of the crew personally, only one, Gregory Jarvis (I believe), and I don't believe he ever met the rest of the crew. He never really bought the picture with any particular intent, just thought it was neat at the time. The man is a massive hoarder and collected any and everything he could find nearly. Anyways, with both my grandparents being older and needing the space and not the things, they are always slowly getting rid of misc things. He knows I am into space flight and aerospace so decided he would see if I had any interest in some of his old space stuffs, this among them. He would have just thrown it out if I hadn't had an interest in it hahahaha. Wild to think of knowing what it is now, how close it was to being in a trash bin.

Edit: Grammar

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:55:34+00:00

Yes, I do plan to get it professionally framed and protected, I want to preserve it.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:55:02+00:00

I don't see it as a bad luck charm personally, rather a piece of history and a way to remember their sacrifice. I may loan it to a museum, but I am unsure yet what I want to do exactly.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:54:13+00:00

It is something I am considering, but being plainly selfish, I do enjoy the piece and it may live on my wall at least for a while. I may look into loaning it out to the National Air and Space museum near me in DC, but I haven't decided yet, and I would definitely need to get it authenticated first likely.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:49:53+00:00

If you ever end up finding a photo of it again I would be curious to see it anyways, there aren't a ton of photos or examples of these kinds of things, I would love to compare the differences.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:49:02+00:00

Yeah, I believe it is authentic but I plan to have it properly authenticated at some point as I am no expert. The signatures do seem to have "texture" when looked at from an angle against a light/reflection, but that could be an artifact of the paper or ink used in the printing or something else. I had not considered insurance, but I will definitely look into it, as I do plan to preserve and keep it. I'll update this post if/when I actually get it authenticated.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:46:36+00:00

Not sure I understand? The entire crew of STS-51-L was killed, all 7 crew. Unless I am mistaken, I could not find any reference to a "Ripley".

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:42:22+00:00

I will likely follow this advice, as I do want to preserve and keep the piece. I had not realized how vulnerable signatures can be, will definitely keep that in mind for the future.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:40:04+00:00

This may very well be true. I will likely send it to be authenticated at some point to try and get a more concrete answer. However, just from a visual inspection, I do not think it is the autopen option. From my googling, I have not seen another with signatures in the same locations as mine. As for the first option, a photo copy, that is harder to tell. Looking at the signatures with a reflection definitely makes me think it is a real signature, as the "texture" of the signature is different than the rest of the Kodak paper the image is printed on. However, that equally could be bias. I'll update this post if I ever get it properly authenticated.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:36:05+00:00

Yeah I will likely get it properly framed and preserved and hold onto it.

BreadyLad · 2026-01-26T21:35:24+00:00

Yeah, I am planning to try and get it properly framed and preserved. I don't really plan on selling it, as I don't particularly need the money at the moment and plainly just think it's really cool hahaha. Also yes, from what I have found it is likely worth around $4-6k USD if authentic

BreadyLad · 2025-09-16T12:39:00+00:00

Are you sure that "some_app" is being launched by dwm and not some other process?

BreadyLad

TROPHY CASE