By Tim Binnall
A year after a mysterious dollar bill signed by four out of five astronauts from a 1988 NASA Space Shuttle mission was found at a Florida restaurant, the missing crew member has added his name to complete the piece. The peculiar memento was discovered last summer by Rob Buffaloe, owner of BurgerRobs in the city of Titusville, when he was counting the eatery's money drawer at the end of the night. The normally routine task took a wondrous turn when he noticed a dollar bill that sported signatures from what he later determined were four astronauts from a 1988 NASA Space Shuttle mission. Beyond the unknown origin of the bill was an additional mystery in that it lacked a signature from Guy Gardner, the fifth member of the crew.
After Buffaloe's weird discovery wound up making headlines, the story found its way to the 'missing' astronaut, who reportedly visited BurgerRobs last week to check out the curious currency and put his proverbial John Hancock on the historic dollar. Though Gardner was able to complete the piece so that it now features each mission member's signature, he indicated that he had "no idea" what the bill's backstory might have been since "typically, we would be as a crew together signing things." So while the roster on the dollar may now be complete, the mystery surrounding its origin is likely to remain unsolved, unless one of the other astronauts from the mission comes forward with some insight into how the collectible was created.