Space Shuttle astronaut adds missing signature to dollar bill signed by fellow crew in Florida
TITUSVILLE, Fla. —
Plenty of dollar bills pass through the register at Burger Rob’s in Titusville, but one bill caught the attention of the co-owners about a year ago. It was covered in signatures.
“The next day he was counting it and happened to see it and he’s like, ‘Hey, there’s more signatures on here,’ and he’s like looking at them and he’s, like, Googling them, and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘This is astronauts’ signatures,'” said Shelby Buffaloe, co-owner of Burger Rob’s.
The signatures belonged to the astronauts from the 1988 STS-27 mission, but one was missing: Guy Gardner.
“Literally last night he reached out and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to be at Kennedy Space Center. I would love to come by and complete your mission of getting this dollar bill done,'” said Rob Buffaloe, co-owner of Burger Rob’s.
Gardner explained that he is part of a program at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex that brings in retired astronauts. He visits every few months, and a few months ago, someone sent him WESH 2’s story about the bill missing his signature.
“I said, ‘Well, next time I’m at the Cape, I have to stop by Burger Rob’s and finish the bill,'” Gardner said.
On Thursday night, nearly 38 years after the mission, Gardner added his name to the bill, completing the set of signatures from the STS-27 astronauts.
“We typically would sign anything, dollar bills especially. That was kind of a thing to do for the workers at the Cape back in the ’80s, and we would sign them as a crew. I have no idea how there were four of us in one place and not me,” Gardner said.
The tradition of signing dollar bills has brought other significant memorabilia to Burger Rob’s, with someone coming in after seeing WESH 2’s original story.
“The very next week they came in and donated a Shuttle-era crew bill, but it was when John Glenn went back to space. So we have John Glenn’s autograph, that entire crew from that mission,” Rob Buffaloe said.
As for what they plan to do with their two now fully signed bills, Buffaloe said, “We’re going to do a heck of a display.”