Out-of-This-World Super Bowl Coin Lands in Ohio

After traveling more than four million miles, and making 171 orbits around Earth on board space shuttle Atlantis, the Super Bowl XLIV opening-toss coin took a slight detour to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Museum in Canton, Ohio, on Jan. 27, before heading to the Super Bowl.


The coin was flown last November on STS-129 by crew members Commander Charlie Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore, and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher.







The astronauts stopped by the museum to return the silver-minted coin, as well as a few other space-flown memorabilia, including a football inscribed with the name of every member of the Hall of Fame. They also returned flown jerseys from the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, the two teams Melvin played for in his short stint in the NFL.


After stopping at the Hall of Fame, the coin will journey to Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., to be the one of the stars of the Super Bowl XLIV pre-game coin toss on Feb. 7.