Pedro Duque Signed ESA Official Portrait — Spain's First Astronaut, STS-95 View Watchlist >
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Lot # Nasa75C
System ID # 29507555
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Pedro Duque Signed ESA Official Portrait — Spain's First Astronaut, STS-95 Mission
October 29, 1998. Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from Kennedy Space Center carrying seven crew members, including a 35-year-old aeronautical engineer from Madrid who has just become the first Spaniard to reach orbit. Pedro Duque rode that rocket not as a passenger but as a working Mission Specialist — and the man seated beside him in the middeck was John Glenn, 77 years old and returning to space for the first time since Friendship 7. STS-95 was that kind of mission: the kind where history stacked on top of itself until the whole world was watching.
This is the official European Space Agency pre-flight portrait card issued in advance of STS-95, showing Duque in the orange NASA launch-and-entry suit, ESA shoulder patch and NASA meatball insignia in place, helmet resting on the table in front of him. He has signed it across the upper left in bold black marker — a clean, commanding hand. The verso carries his printed ESA biography, tracing the arc from the Polytechnic University of Madrid through the ESA Astronaut Corps selection in 1992, Star City training for EUROMIR 94, and the STS-95 assignment. The credit line reads "photo NASA for ESA." This card was printed before the mission flew; Duque's path from here was still ahead of him.
History
Pedro Duque is Spain's first astronaut — full stop. Selected by ESA in May 1992 and based at the European Astronauts Centre in Cologne, he trained at the Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City for EUROMIR 94 and served as alternate payload specialist on STS-78, the Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission. His prime flight came on STS-95 in October 1998, where he conducted microgravity experiments aboard Discovery alongside Glenn's historic return to orbit. A decade later he flew again, this time to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-13. He subsequently served as Spain's Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities from 2018 to 2021. He is, in short, the most significant figure in Spanish spaceflight history — and this card was signed at the moment the world was about to find out who he was.
Authenticity
A Certificate of Authenticity will be issued by Mesilla Valley Estate Sales.
Collector's Note
The ESA official portrait card format — color photo, printed biography verso, signed recto — is the cleanest single-item format the agency produced during the Shuttle era. STS-95 cards carry double gravity: Duque's historical significance as Spain's first astronaut and the mission's own headline status as the Glenn return flight. This is the version signed before launch, when the mission was still upcoming. For autograph collectors focused on ESA astronauts, European space history, or Shuttle-era signed crew material, a pre-flight Duque with a COA is a straightforward acquisition.
CONDITION
Very Good. The portrait face is bright and clean with a bold, undisturbed signature. The verso shows light orange offset transfer from the signing ink at the upper right, along with faint handling marks; corners are sharp.
DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS
- Card: 6 5/8" × 4 3/4"
- Format: Color photo card, hand-signed recto, printed ESA biography verso
- Subject: Pedro Duque, ESA Astronaut — STS-95 Mission Specialist
- Signature: Black marker, recto upper left
- Credit line: photo NASA for ESA
- COA: Mesilla Valley Estate Sales
