'Mystery space dollar' found inside Florida burger spot

MORNING. WE’LL BRING THAT TO YOU LIVE AS WELL. ALL RIGHT. NOW TO A STORY. YOU’LL SEE ONLY ON WESH TWO. THE STORY OF A DOLLAR BILL WITH A LOT OF HISTORICAL VALUE. IT WAS FOUND INSIDE A TITUSVILLE BURGER JOINT. AND AS WESH TWO, MEGAN MORIARTY TELLS US, WHAT’S WRITTEN ON THAT DOLLAR HAS A LOT OF PEOPLE TALKING. INSIDE. BURGER ROB’S LOCATED IN THE HEART OF TITUSVILLE. YOU’LL NOTICE THE SUBTLE NODS TO THE SPACE COAST. LIKE EVERY KID ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD, AND JUST PICTURING UP IN THE STARS. AND WHEN WE MOVED HERE ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO TO ACTUALLY GET TO SEE THAT FROM OUR FRONT YARDS, IT JUST MADE EVERYTHING COME TRUE. ROB BUFFALO AND HIS WIFE OPENED THE BUSINESS IN 2020, BUT LAST WEEK THEY DISCOVERED SOMETHING THAT STOOD OUT. HOW DID YOU FIND IT? WALK ME THROUGH THE WHOLE THING. SURE. IT WAS JUST THE END OF THE EVENING. WE WENT HOME AND WE WERE COUNTING OUT OUR BANKS FOR THE EVENING, AND AS I’M SITTING THERE DOING MY THING, IT CAUGHT MY EYE WHEN YOU LOOKED AT IT UP CLOSE. WHAT DID YOU THINK? THAT I KNEW IT WASN’T THE ORDINARY BILL. IT HAD FOUR SIGNATURES. THE NAMES READ HOOT GIBSON, BILL SHEPARD, JERRY ROSS AND MIKE MULLEN, WHICH HAPPENED TO BE THE NAMES OF FOUR OF THE FIVE ASTRONAUTS ABOARD THE STS 27. AND SO I COULDN’T EVEN SLEEP THAT EVENING AS I WAS TRYING TO GET AHOLD OF EVERYBODY TO SAY, WE HAVE THIS MYSTERY ASTRONAUT DOLLAR BILL. HOW DID IT GET HERE? AND ONCE HE REALIZED WHAT MIGHT BE IN HIS POSSESSION, HE REACHED OUT TO THE AMERICAN SPACE MUSEUM. AND HE JUST BLINDLY SENT ME A MESSAGE TO THE MUSEUM THAT WITH THE PICTURE OF THIS DOLLAR BILL AND COULD I AUTHENTICATE IT, THAT IT WAS A REAL WHAT HE THOUGHT IT WAS. AND I WAS FLABBERGASTED. MARK MARQUETTE IS THE DIRECTOR FOR THE AMERICAN SPACE MUSEUM. HE EXPLAINS THAT THE STS 27 CREW WAS THE SECOND LAUNCH AFTER THE CHALLENGER DISASTER, AND THEY WERE ON A TOP SECRET DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MISSION WHEN THEY LAUNCHED IN 1988. THEY HAD A BURN THROUGH OF THE TILES ON REENTRY THAT, HAD IT HAPPENED IN ANY PLACE BUT WHERE IT DID ABOVE A STEEL GIRDER, THEY WOULD HAVE DIED. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THOSE SIGNATURES ARE AUTHENTIC? OH, ABSOLUTELY THEY ARE. WHILE ROB HAS NO IDEA WHERE THIS DOLLAR BILL CAME FROM, HE’S CREATED HIS OWN NARRATIVE OF WHAT HE’S COINED AS THE MYSTERY SPACE DOLLAR. ONE DAY I MAY HAVE EATEN LUNCH, AND THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY JUST TO SIGN THIS DOLLAR BILL AND LET’S SEE WHERE IT ENDS UP. AND SO I IMAGINE IT CIRCLED THE GLOBE AND FOUND ITS WAY BACK HOME. DO YOU KIND OF HOPE IT STAYS A MYSTERY? I DO. NO ONE CAN TALK ME OUT OF MY STORY. OTHERWISE. COVERING THE SPACE COAST MEGAN MORIARTY WESH TWO NEWS. AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN SPACE MUSEUM SAYS HE’S GOING TO PUT THE OWNER IN TOUCH WITH FORMER ASTRONAUT GUY GARDNER IN HOPES OF GETTING THAT FIFTH SIGNATURE ON THE DOLLAR BILL TO COMPLETE THE STS 27 CREW. FOR NOW, YOU CAN S

Updated: 5:36 PM CDT Jul 16, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

'Mystery space dollar' found inside Florida burger spot

Updated: 5:36 PM CDT Jul 16, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

A Florida restaurant found some mysterious money in its cash register — and it’s caused quite the stir.See the story in the video aboveRob Buffaloe and his wife opened BurgerRobs in Titusville, Florida, in 2020. They’ve dealt with the ups and downs of the pandemic and have seen their fair share of interesting things come through the door. Last week, they discovered something that stood out.“We were counting out our banks for the evening, and as I’m sitting there doing my thing, it caught my eye,” Buffaloe said. “I knew it wasn’t the ordinary bill.”The dollar has four signatures proudly written on it. After a closer look, the names read: Hoot Gibson, Bill Shepard, Jerry Ross and Mike Mullane. Those names happen to be four of the five astronauts aboard the STS-27 mission.“I couldn’t even sleep,” Buffaloe said. “I was trying to get a hold of everybody to say, ‘We have this mystery astronaut dollar bill. How did it get here?’”Once he realized the potential significance of the bill, Buffaloe reached out to the American Space Museum.“He just blindly sent me a message — to the museum — with this dollar bill and asked if I could authenticate it, that it was really what he thought it was,” said Mark Marquette, director of the American Space Museum in Titusville. “I was flabbergasted.”“He’s got the real deal there,” Marquette said.Marquette explained the historical importance of the STS-27 crew. The mission was the second launch after the Challenger disaster, in which the shuttle broke apart less than 90 seconds into flight, killing all seven crew members. The STS-27 crew launched in 1988 on a top-secret Department of Defense mission.“They had a burn-through of the tiles on reentry, and had it happened in any place but where it did — above a steel girder — they would have died,” Marquette said.While Buffaloe has no idea where the dollar bill came from, he’s created his own narrative about how it got to his Titusville restaurant.“One day, eating lunch and thought it’d be fun to just sign this dollar bill,” Buffaloe said. “I imagine it circled the globe and made its way back home.”The dollar bill is missing one signature from the STS-27 crew — Guy Gardner — but Marquette hopes to help complete it.“I told him, get it framed — just make sure it’s a frame you can take that dollar bill out of,” Marquette said. “We’ll get Guy Gardner to sign it.”

A Florida restaurant found some mysterious money in its cash register — and it’s caused quite the stir.

See the story in the video above

Rob Buffaloe and his wife opened in Titusville, Florida, in 2020. They’ve dealt with the ups and downs of the pandemic and have seen their fair share of interesting things come through the door. Last week, they discovered something that stood out.

“We were counting out our banks for the evening, and as I’m sitting there doing my thing, it caught my eye,” Buffaloe said. “I knew it wasn’t the ordinary bill.”

The dollar has four signatures proudly written on it. After a closer look, the names read: Hoot Gibson, Bill Shepard, Jerry Ross and Mike Mullane. Those names happen to be four of the five astronauts aboard the STS-27 mission.

“I couldn’t even sleep,” Buffaloe said. “I was trying to get a hold of everybody to say, ‘We have this mystery astronaut dollar bill. How did it get here?’”

Once he realized the potential significance of the bill, Buffaloe reached out to the

“He just blindly sent me a message — to the museum — with this dollar bill and asked if I could authenticate it, that it was really what he thought it was,” said Mark Marquette, director of the American Space Museum in Titusville. “I was flabbergasted.”

“He’s got the real deal there,” Marquette said.

Marquette explained the historical importance of the STS-27 crew. The mission was the second launch after the Challenger disaster, in which the shuttle broke apart less than 90 seconds into flight, killing all seven crew members. The STS-27 crew launched in 1988 on a top-secret Department of Defense mission.

“They had a burn-through of the tiles on reentry, and had it happened in any place but where it did — above a steel girder — they would have died,” Marquette said.

While Buffaloe has no idea where the dollar bill came from, he’s created his own narrative about how it got to his Titusville restaurant.

“One day, [they were] eating lunch and thought it’d be fun to just sign this dollar bill,” Buffaloe said. “I imagine it circled the globe and made its way back home.”

The dollar bill is missing one signature from the STS-27 crew — Guy Gardner — but Marquette hopes to help complete it.

“I told him, get it framed — just make sure it’s a frame you can take that dollar bill out of,” Marquette said. “We’ll get Guy Gardner to sign it.”

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