How has your 2014 been?

How has your 2014 been, autograph-wise?

In the five years I've been rebuilding my collection, it's been a decent year. I added 16 signatures to my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book, in-person, through the mail, and with the help of family and friends - thanks to everybody.

Those 16 autographs more than met my self-imposed "Astronaut of the Month" standard:

• Umberto Guidoni
• Nicole Stott
• Karen Nyberg - No. 165 overall

  

  Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano at the University of Maryland, College Park.

• Doug Wheelock
  
• B. Alvin Drew - No. 155 out of 355 Shuttle astronauts
• Sam Gemar
• M. Rhea Seddon - No. 47 contributor
• Terry Wilcutt - No. 48 contributor
• Bonnie Dunbar
• Rudolfo Neri Vela

  

  Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexico's first (only) astronaut; flew as a Mission Specialist on STS-61-B. Neri Vela is shown signing my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book, 13 August 2014 following the Astronaut Encounter at Kennedy Space Center. I was particularly happy for this, since Neri Vela usually doesn't (now) visit outside his country. Photo courtesy Livia C Ferreira DaSilva.

• Edward Lu

  

  With Edward T. Lu, two-time shuttle astronaut and six-month flight engineer on the International Space Station (and the first NASA astronaut to launch and land on a Soyuz. At the DRS Sigint Tech Expo, BWI Airport Marriott, Linthicum Heights, Md., 10 Sept. 2014. Photo courtesy event organizers.

• Robert Stewart
• Mike Gernhardt
• Kathy Sullivan

  

  Kathryn D. Sullivan at Monmouth University.

• Steve Hawley
• Michel Tognini

  

  The autographs of Steven A. Hawley and Michel A-C Tognini meant I had completed getting the signatures of the STS-93 crew in my book (all by me in-person!) - Jeff Ashby was not present at the 15 Years of Science with Chandra event but I had gotten him earlier, as I did with Eileen Collins and Catherine "Cady" Coleman, who were at the event. Hawley wasn't sure where to sign so it would show up so I suggested on top of the page, and Tognini followed suit. In addition to a completed STS-93 crew, Hawley's autograph meant I completed three more crews in my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book: Mission 41D (n.i. +Resnick), Mission 61C, and STS-31R. (Of those, I also met all of the Mission 61C crew, although not all of the signatures from that flight in my book were directly obtained by me. Boston, Ma., 18 Nov. 2014.

For a total of 178 overall (I've had Jim Lovell, who wrote the foreword sign, as well as 11 others who trained or were selected but otherwise didn't fly on the Shuttle.) Out of the 355 Shuttle astronauts, 33 are deceased, not including three (Sally Ride, Hank Hartsfield and Steve Nagel) who signed my book.

So I'm up to 199/355 Shuttle astronauts, and any further autographs are going to be hard to come by. Many of the astronauts have gone quietly into retirement and don't make many - if any - public appearances now. And with the upcoming birth of my daughter, it'll be difficult to do road trips to meet astronauts.

But it's OK. Because it's been a fun ride.

In addition to my book, I've also gotten signed photos from either Shuttle astronauts I didn't have or astronauts I've met but didn't fly the Shuttle:

• Luca Parmitano

  

  Italian Air Force Maj. Luca S. Parmitano jokingly rolled his eyes when he saw I brought this photo to get signed. Karen Nyberg teased him, "That's what you get for bringing that costume." 26 March 2014 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

• Mike Hopkins

  

  Air Force Col. Michael S. Hopkins was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. He was the first of his class to fly into space, as a flight engineer for ISS Expeditions 37 and 38. Hopkins made an appearance on 1 June 2014 at the World Science Festival in New York, where I got this signed. He asked, "Where did you get this photo?" and explained that he had never seen it before.

• Karol "Bo" Bobko
• Joe Edwards (I didn't have my book for him to sign at the time)
• Mae Jemison

  

  "Wow! Look at that!" - Sen. Cory Booker, who saw this photo as I asked to have it signed. He and Mae C.  Jemison, the science mission specialist on STS-47 Spacelab-J (12-20 September 1992) made an appearance as part of a Students 2 Science presentation 15 Oct. 2014, in East Hanover, NJ. When I previously met Jemison in February 2011 I wasn't in also getting autographed photos as much as signatures in my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book. This signed photo meant crossing off one item on my bucket list.

• Jeffrey Williams - the subject of a previous post.

And I've re-met another 10 astronauts, missed out on two that I was in the area for, and met another who declined to do autographs. One of those I re-met was F. Story Musgrave, who signed my copy of "NASA Scientist-Astronauts," which had a photo I took of Musgrave 10 years earlier:

I've also had a lot of thru-the-mail successes as well, including these:

• Centaur

  

  A scene that never was - the deployment of a Centaur liquid-fueled upper stage from the Shuttle. I had that signed in-person by Marine Col. (ret.) Dave Hilmers and Navy Capt. Rick Hauck. I figured why not, send it off to Roy Bridges for his signature, and I got it back in less than a month. So now I have the Mission 61F crew less Mike Lounge, whom I never met in-person and also never got the chance to send this for his signature.
  
  After that, I sent it to John Fabian, who was assigned first to Mission 61D/Spacelab 4, and then with that flight's postponment, to one of the Galileo flights before he left NASA. I got it back from Fabian in about a week. Then I sent it to James D. A. "Ox" van Hoften, who returned it in about four months. Now I have two more crew members to go (Dave Walker, who would have commanded the other Centaur flight, Mission 61G, is also deceased) and this will be a crew complete item.

• Don Peterson

  

  This photo shows F. Story Musgrave (red stripes) and Don Peterson making the first Shuttle EVA. Normally Musgrave signs with just his first name, to distinguish his autographs from autopens. But he signed this with his last name unasked. Galloway Township, NJ, 5 Oct. 2014. Then I sent this to Peterson the same day I got it signed by Musgrave, and received it back on 17 Nov. 2014.

• STS-28R

  

  I had bought this litho on the secondary market, already signed by David Leestma and Mark Brown. My plan was to have both this and my Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years book signed by James Adamson and Richard Richards, but I didn't want to chance my book. Both of them sent it back within a week. Brewster Shaw will be a more difficult signature to get, but I'm happy with this litho as it now stands.