Diners were starstruck as an astronaut in a blue NASA flight suit entered BurgerRob’s in Titusville on July 30 — a visit prompted by a mysterious dollar bill that landed in the register about a year ago.
NASA Space Shuttle astronaut Guy Gardner walked into the eatery Thursday evening, welcomed by owners Rob and Shelby Buffaloe. Gardner provided the missing piece of the puzzle, but even as he added his signature to the bill already signed by his astronaut crewmates, Gardner had no explanation for how this special souvenir came to be.
“It was kind of the mystery astronaut dollar bill,” said Rob Buffaloe. “How did it get here? Were they just out eating dinner one night incognito?”
One evening last year, the Buffaloes found the dollar bill in the cash register. It had been autographed by four out of the five astronauts from NASA’s STS-27 mission. That launched the Buffaloes quest to get the missing signature.
Shelby Buffaloe told FLORIDA TODAY she didn’t pay much attention to the signed bill that night, simply placing it back into the till.
“Luckily it didn’t get handed back out for change,” she said.
Buffaloe said he noticed the bill later that night. After some quick research, he discovered they were the astronauts of that 1988 shuttle mission and reached out to the American Space Museum in Titusville for help verifying its authenticity.
The only problem was one crew member’s signature, Guy Gardner’s, was missing.
Robert Gibson, Jerry Ross, William Shepherd, Richard Mullane, and Guy Gardner launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on Dec. 2, 1988 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39B.
At some point in time, four of them signed this particular dollar bill, and it got released unto circulation.
“It just kind of all spun out from there, and the Kelly Clarkson show picked it up,” said Shelby. “And we were hoping that someday we would be able to get the signature.”
Meanwhile, Gardner had no idea this signed bill existed or had been the center of attention. He told FLORIDA TODAY it wasn’t until a friend of his mentioned the story appearing on a news broadcast last year that he noticed someone was seeking his signature — and a possible explanation.
Gardner said he was puzzled when he saw the signatures of his four crewmates with only his signature missing. While astronauts do signing events, he cannot imagine where and when those signatures were placed.
“I have no idea,” said Gardner. “Typically, we would be as a crew together signing things.”
If those signatures were added at the same time, Gardner said he can only imagine it was one of the occasions when he was held up at a separate event.
Gardner knew he had to add his signature. He decided he would visit the eatery the next time he was in town to appear as an astronaut of the day at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex — the same place Space Shuttle Atlantis resides.
It remains a mystery as to where the signed bill originated and just who released it into circulation on the Space Coast. While there are no answers, the signatures are now all present.
Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA astronaut visits Titusville eatery after ‘mystery dollar’ appears
Reporting by Brooke Edwards, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Brooke Edwards, Florida Today | USA TODAY Network
