Astronaut Scholarship Foundation

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Lot 33: Astronaut Rick Hauck "TFNG" T-Shirt

Sometimes, a shirt's story is longer than its sleeves. Such is the case with this treasure-of-a-tee directly from Space Shuttle astronaut Rick Hauck's private collection.

Not long after the 8th "class" of astronauts-15 pilots and 20 mission specialists explicitly chosen to fly the Space Shuttle-arrived at the Johnson Space Center in the summer of 1978, they became known as Thirty-Five New Guys, or TFNG.

The TFNG group, which included the first six American woman astronauts, the first African American astronauts and the first Asian American astronaut, was known for its members' camaraderie and intra- squad competitiveness.

When TFNG was split into two groups to make the logistics of administration and training more manageable, those groups soon adopted team names-the "Reds" and the "Blues"-and faced off in a variety of friendly games. This required a uniform and thus, TFNG team t-shirts were born.

This size large vintage red t-shirt is one of Hauck's original TFNG tops, worn by the astronaut during training, flying and many games of tag football. According to Hauck, the shirt "may have even gone into space." It features a large Space Shuttle illustration over a bold, all-caps "TFNG," with the motto "We Deliver" under that, all in bright white.

It comes framed and matted using archival methods alongside a signed photo of Hauck wearing the shirt next to fellow TFNG member Anna Fisher on board the KC-135 "Vomit Comet" zero-G aircraft. In the picture, Hauck has unzipped his flight suit to reveal the t-shirt's entire graphic. A closer look reveals that Hauck is wearing Fisher's nametag and vice versa.

Hauck and Fisher flew together aboard Discovery for the first space salvage mission in history (STS- 51A, Nov. 8, 1984 - Nov. 16, 1984), when they, along with Dave Walker, Joe Allen and Dale Gardner, rendezvoused with two crippled satellites and brought them back to Earth.

ASF reserves the right to disqualify the high bidder, to reject the high bid, and to accept a bid from a lower bidder, for any reason within their discretion, which shall be exercised in good faith.

Bid History

Bidding on this lot concluded on March 15, 2013 at 10:00 PM EDT.

Bidders: 6 Bids: 19 Winning Bid: $270

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