Observations on the XXIX ASE Planetary Conference

How did you fare, autograph-wise, during the XXIX ASE Planetary Conference, which was held in early October?

Yes, signatures aren't the end-all be-all. But when you have that many space travelers in one place, the opportunities for collectors is great - at least the potential is.

ASE astronauts & cosmonauts group photo during XXIX Planetary Congress (c) OeWF/ASE/Florian Voggeneder

As another collector noted, "The first day of the conference we could get autographs but Tuesday and Thursday the organizers didn't allow us to get them ... allegedly the flyers didn't want to sign ... It was not as successful as Sweden [Stockholm] last year, probably because the collector crowd was much bigger in Vienna than it was in Sweden."

Added the collector: "The ASE dinner and party (that we had to pay for) was attended by only nine flyers  as opposed to about 20 in Sweden.... And during the public events, except for Monday, they did not want to give autographs. Some of them we got hold of when in front of their hotel, but with this you also have to be very discreet and polite, and not harass them while they are carrying suitcases or bags. ...  Maybe they are also afraid of people carrying big piles of photos, because they think it might be dealers. ...  I am thinking of attending Toulouse next year, but wonder what autograph policy they will have there."

Another collector said, "All were good for signing except a corps of women astronauts who were weary of dealers and made it hard for all."

As for future ASE conferences, that collector had this to say. "I think Houston (in 2019) will not be easy but I expect some tough astronauts to show up. You usually ask for one or two autographs so it should be less of a problem.  Great chance to increase your book by 50 signatures for the Russians and foreign ones."

The "increase by 50 signatures" turned out to be uncannily accurate, as there were 63 foreign nationals who flew on the Shuttle, as I have 17 of them (and five are deceased, leaving 63-22=41.) That's assuming everybody I'm missing shows up. But if I were to have gotten everybody I'm missing in my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book, I would have added 25 signatures. So maybe a trip to Houston is warranted. Even a handful of new ones is a good day.

Here's what my friend was able to get for me at the XXIX ASE Planetary Conference:

Signed by (on right) Yang Liwei, first Chinese taikonaut (astronaut.) Nie Haisheng, who flew twice, was originally listed as attending.  

Chinese taikonaut signatures, with the possible exception of Yang, who did a visit to the United States, are hard to come by. 

Sure, postal covers and photos signed by them are available through a Chinese national on eBay - but no one knows for certain whether or not those were really signed by the taikonauts. You can get to 99 and several nines certainty, but with a lack of information and contact with the Chinese space program, there will always be a measure of uncertainty until in-person examples are obtained.

I pulled a "Russian" - that is, I found a photo showing Yang and Nie, plus a third taikonaut - so I simply enlarged the photo to get the third guy literally out of the picture.

 Crew complete! This shows the launching crew of Soyuz TMA-7: from left - Gregory Olsen, spaceflight participant; Valery Tokarev, Russian cosmonaut; and William McArthur, American astronaut.

Tokarev signed this at the XXVIII ASE Planetary Conference in Stockholm, but either Olsen wasn't there or my friend couldn't get him. 

Olsen signed this in-person following a presentation at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ, 3 Dec. 2015.

I was really happy to have McArthur sign this. Not only because it completed a crew, but because the only photo I had of McArthur was his portrait (I prefer the candid shots) and it was inscribed - at the time McArthur signed my "Shuttle: 20 Years" book I didn't think to ask for an autographed photo as well.

The inscribed photo was among a group of 40 or so signed astronaut photos, plus the bottom half of the letter signed by Scott Carpenter. I believe I paid $70 or $80 for the lot - so I kept the ones I wanted, and sold the rest, making out ahead to keep me continuing with this hobby (postage and printing photos, among other things.)

No real story behind this photo of Vladimir Titov, who flew four times - two Soyuz missions and two Shuttle missions (or five flights, if you include his suborbital Soyuz launch abort!) I had a portrait (there's that word again) of Titov in his Shuttle "pumpkin suit," unique enough, signed in English and not Cyrillic. But it was in poor condition with numerous dings and a fold, and I knew it was always only going to be a placeholder until I found something else.

Silly me, though, bought another NASA glossy (unsigned) showing Titov. Not sure if I'll hold onto it for future use, or put it up for sale.

Another NASA glossy, this time showing some of the STS-55/Columbia mission specialists and both of the payload specialists during the Spacelab D-2 flight. From left: Jerry Ross, who was at the conference but whom my friend couldn't get (but is easy enough to obtain); Bernard Harris, also an easy enough autograph; Ulrich Walter, for whom this was his only spaceflight; and Hans Schlegel, who later flew on STS-122.

I had a TTM photo of Walter, but the ink didn't adhere right to the photo even though he signed it twice. Schlegel lives in the Houston, Texas area but as far as I'm aware doesn't sign by mail - so I may have to go to the Houston conference just to get him to sign.

Here's what the European Space Agency sends out in response to photo requests, although I got this second-hand. It's been difficult to tell whether or not these are authentically signed or a printed signature somehow.

In a trade, I got another Schlegel autographed ESA card. Not only was it signed in a different spot, but the formation of the letters are slightly different, leading me to believe that the silver-signed Schlegel cards are not autopenned, but are most likely authentically signed.

Again, without getting an in-person autograph, you can never be absolutely certain, though.

In addition to replacing my Walter-signed photo, this photo showing the four EuroMir astronauts also replaces three pictures, although one of them I'm still keeping:

From left: Thomas Reiter, Ulf Merbold, Pedro Duque, and Christer Fuglesang, respectively the two prime and two backup crewmembers for the EuroMir missions.

I have a signed Reiter photo, bought on the secondary market, but it's a nice candid that I'm still keeping it in my collection. (I rarely have more than one photo signed by an individual.)

Merbold signs by mail, enclosing a headshot in addition to autographing what material you may have (but be careful of what address you send it to - at one address, autopens of that headshot have been sent!)

The Merbold photo I sent, like the Walter photo, had a poor signature adherence. This time, it was a flaking silver Sharpie or similar marker.

Duque I'm really happy about, because it replaces a signed photo I bought. I guess he's a tough autograph to get, because a friend noted, "Duque was in an excellent signing mood the first day of the Congress, I couldn't believe my eyes."

Another friend was able to get me Fuglesang in May 2015, which in turn replaced a card similar to that of Schlegel, but signed in black marker (request sent September 2013, received back June 2014.) But I'm keeping that photo as well.

And lastly, there was this:

Shannon Lucid added to my photo of Mir astronauts - those that flew, backups, and were named but didn't fly.

The other signatures are: Jerry Linenger, the fourth American Mir resident (and he signed on 11 Sept. 2001, in either Belgium or Germany. Linenger was asked if he wanted to continue signing or postpone it, but he decided to go on); Wendy Lawrence, who was too short to fit into a Russian spacesuit and had to give her slot to her backup, David Wolf; Bonnie Dunbar, who was backup to Norman Thagard, the first American Mir resident; and Bill Readdy, who was Thagard's original backup. An early plan had Readdy fly up to Mir on STS-71/Atlantis (which brought Thagard home), stay a month, then fly back on a Soyuz to evaluate its use as a lifeboat for the space station.

Lucid was the second American Mir resident. She hasn't done many, if any at all, appearances on the East Coast - and I was prepared to send this to England for a planned appearance which was canceled - so I'm really happy to have gotten her signature on this photo.

I had another Mir photo years earlier which made the rounds of the prime, backup and intended crew. I may have sent it off to Lucid at the astronaut office, but of course, never saw the photo again.