Thanks, Charlie

So Charlie Bolden will be leaving the position of NASA administrator - a political appointment - noon Jan. 20, when President Barack Obama leaves office. Associate administrator Robert Lightfoot, a former director of Marshall SFC, will be acting administrator. (It's customary for the highest-ranking NASA civil servant to be acting administrator during presidential transitions.)

I'm not well-versed in the politics of NASA, but I've always found Charlie - as he preferred people to call him - to be personable and outgoing. I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few times, most notably when in 2011 when he was commencement speaker at Monmouth University. (Then-university president Paul Gaffney was a classmate of Bolden at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.)

I'm not sure if I was an education reporter then, but my editor understood why I wanted to cover the graduation. As it turned out, the person that normally covered the event as sick that day, so most likely I would have been the reporter to do so anyway.

I got to sit at Charlie's table for lunch in addition to interviewing him for the paper. And we also got to talking about the Shuttle Launch Experience simulator at Kennedy Space Center - I broke the ice by mentioning that I had been there and got to see his smiling face narrating the pre-show. Charlie said that the movement of the seats was more realistic than the actual shuttle simulator at Johnson Space Center, where the astronauts trained. I still have the audio recording, and perhaps one day I'll get to transcribe it, maybe when the SLE gets replaced years from now.

Bolden didn't announce his post-January 20 plans. Wherever he goes, I'm sure he'll be successful. And I'll miss him.

Piers Sellers (1955-2016)

Piers Sellers has died. Though not unexpected, unfortunately. Sellers was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in October 2015. 

From Charles Bolden, NASA's administrator said this of the three-time (STS-112/Atlantis, STS-121/Discovery and STS-132/Atlantis) Shuttle astronaut:

"Piers devoted his life to saving the planet. As a climate scientist, his work in computer modeling of the climate system, satellite remote sensing studies and field work using aircraft, satellites and ground teams broke new ground in our understanding of Earth’s systems. His legacy will be one not only of urgency that the climate is warming but also of hope that we can yet improve humanity’s stewardship of this planet. His cancer diagnosis became a catalyst for him to work even harder on efforts to save the planet from global warming for the benefit of future generations."

In January, Sellers had this to say in a New York Times editorial:

"After handling the immediate business associated with the medical news — informing family, friends, work; tidying up some finances; putting out stacks of unread New York Times Book Reviews to recycle; and throwing a large “Limited Edition” holiday party, complete with butlers, I had some time to sit at my kitchen table and draw up the bucket list.

"Very quickly, I found out that I had no desire to jostle with wealthy tourists on Mount Everest, or fight for some yardage on a beautiful and exclusive beach, or all those other things one toys with on a boring January afternoon. Instead, I concluded that all I really wanted to do was spend more time with the people I know and love, and get back to my office as quickly as possible.

...

"As for me, I’ve no complaints. I’m very grateful for the experiences I’ve had on this planet. As an astronaut I spacewalked 220 miles above the Earth. Floating alongside the International Space Station, I watched hurricanes cartwheel across oceans, the Amazon snake its way to the sea through a brilliant green carpet of forest, and gigantic nighttime thunderstorms flash and flare for hundreds of miles along the Equator. From this God’s-eye-view, I saw how fragile and infinitely precious the Earth is. I’m hopeful for its future.

"And so, I’m going to work tomorrow."

Sellers was a guest - not an attendee - at the April 2012 ceremony where shuttle Discovery was transferred to the Smithsonian and Enterprise was moved out.

Most of the astronauts headed back to the museum along a "cattle chute," so it was relatively easy to call out their names in hopes of getting an autograph: "Mr. Sellers, Mr. Sellers, a moment please, to sign our books."

He did so, and with amazement, asked, "How did you know my name?" as he was wearing a business suit, not the blue NASA flightsuit.

"Um, you're wearing a name tag, sir," I pointed out.

The Discovery transfer ceremony, incidentally, my only time meeting Sellers, was the only time I met John Glenn. I might have had a chance to meet Sellers earlier, when the STS-132 crew did a meet-and-greet in 2010, including a stop in Georgetown, Maryland, but I opted instead to again see Garrett Reisman (who also was on STS-132), who did a presentation of a flown item to a Brooklyn eatery owner.

John Glenn (1921-2016)

John Glenn, the last of the Mercury 7 astronauts, has died.

In some ways, it's not surprising. He was 95 and had a stroke two years ago. He was also in declining health:

"I've got problems. I had a little stroke after the surgery that affected my eyes. I only have about half my vision. I have trouble recognizing people. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic and at Johns Hopkins hope it will get better with time, but it's been eight months and it hasn't gotten better at all."

Up until then, Glenn signed autographs - including the one seen here, from (I believe) the "John Glenn American Hero" press kit.

In all the years, Glenn never charged for a signature. In the later years, he would every so often visit Ohio State University (where his requests went) and sign items that people sent in.

Those that didn't enclose an item would receive a signed and personalized portrait of Glenn in his Shuttle launch and entry suit (the main image of this photo.) Glenn presigned a whole bunch of them, then would be inscribed (most likely by running the litho through a computer.)

Even items sent to him were normally personalized a matter of course. Myself and another collector who sent them same photo were surprised to see they weren't.

In-person, Glenn was just as great. In fact, even after his stroke:

"I saw that he kindly signed a helmet for one person and the body of a rocket for another but that was it and away he was driven off. He advised the two gentleman with the items that he couldn't guarantee the quality of the signatures."

I had the fortune of meeting most of the Mercury 7 astronauts, except obviously Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard (who died in 1998, before I was really into astronauts.)

Deke Slayton was among the first I met, followed by Gordon Cooper, who signed a book I brought for a friend. Walter Schirra was at the same event, but I didn't interact with him.

Scott Carpenter did his book tour, and Glenn was the last one, at the shuttle Discovery transfer at Udvar-Hazy in April 2012.

(And it's scary to think that of the Mercury astronauts I have met, I've met them in the order which they died!)

Friends and I were hanging around before the shuttle Discovery event really started, waiting to see if we could spot any astronauts. Along comes Glenn and his wife in a golf cart. They got out and waited for the elevator.

"Excuse me, Mr. Senator?" I asked, thinking fast. "Could you sign our books for us?"

Always at the ready, I had Glenn's page bookmarked in my copy of "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" as well as a Sharpie in my pocket. He said sure, I opened up our books, uncapping the marker. He signed both as ding! the elevator arrived. I thanked him, he got on, and I didn't see him for the rest of the day.

A friend noted, "I remember seeing you get Sen Glenn's autograph at that event. He was so gracious. What a memorable meeting for you."

But boy oh boy were people dismayed that I was able to get Glenn's signature. (I was beyond happy as he was one whose autograph in my book I wanted for a long time, and as I mentioned, I didn't see him the rest of the event.)

Someone also asked to borrow my Sharpie - hey, you want an autograph, you gotta come prepared and bring your own materials!

Footnote: While at Monmouth Museum's Becker Children's Wing I was surprised to see what appears to be 1:1 replica of Friendship 7, Glenn's Mercury capsule.

The museum merely notes, " ... blast off in a Friendship 7 capsule in our Space Exhibition ... " and it appears to be running Windows (no I didn't see whether it was running Windows 7!) However, at the time of my visit it didn't appear as though the simulator was working, given the desktop appearance on the monitor.

Footnote 2: When Glenn's second flight, on STS-95/Discovery was announced, I had in mind that he should have a personal patch.

As a big Star Trek fan at the time, I believe I had based it on the movie Starfleet symbol - that is, the Starfleet delta surrounded by a circle.

I may or may not have the sketch,  but I remember there was a bar from the lowest apex from the delta going right, most likely with the word "Discovery" on it.

And I may or may not have the rejection letter about Glenn declining it. As a result, I don't think I ever gave a color scheme for the proposed patch. Maybe if I run across it in my tote of miscellaneous papers I'll post it here.

Metuchen, NJ astronaut's mission now scheduled for August 2017

Mark Vande Hei, with his now-old E.51 patch.

Metuchen’s astronaut is still on track for a spaceflight – it’s just going to be a few months later than planned.

Mark Vande Hei, who was originally assigned as a flight engineer to the Expedition 51/52 crews with a planned March 2017 launch, now will visit the International Space Station as a part of the Expedition 53/54 crews, with a planned August 2017 launch.

Russia, as part of a cost-saving move, is reducing its presence from three crewmembers down to two. The ISS normally has a crew complement of six, the other three people comprised of two American astronauts and one from the other station partners – Canada, Japan, or one of the European Space Agency countries.

The Russian reduction in crew is to begin in March 2017  – Vande Hei’s original planned launch date – and so the previously announced crews have to be reshuffled to accommodate this change.

Previously designed crew patches with Vande Hei’s name, such as the Expedition 51 and 52 emblems, have to also be redesigned. The new Expedition 53 patch was unveiled late last week.
The Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which can carry three people, may not have a vacant third seat. Igor Komarov, head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said the seat can be purchased by NASA or ESA to fly one of their astronauts.

Recently retired last month as a  colonel in the U.S. Army, Vande Hei was born in 1966 in Falls Church, Virginia. He attended St. Joseph High School in Metuchen before moving to Minnesota and graduating from Benilde-Saint Margaret’s High School in Saint Louis Park.

“I haven’t been back to New Jersey for a long time, too long. I started school there and stayed until my family moved to Minnesota when I was 15,” Vande Hei wrote me.

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.

A little disappointment with Franklin Institute talk with Christina Koch

I got to The Franklin Institute about 10,30, an hour after they opened. There was no parking, and I circled the garage twice. There were spaces that were blocked off by a cone. I shrugged, moved one of the cones, and parked. (No one cared that I did so.) By the time I got to the elevator, staff were valet parking cars - and doing so by essentially double parking them in back of cars in spaces. Urgh. Would have been nice for them to do that earlier, and save me the aggravation.

I'll admit to being a bit disappointed by the day, but first a bit of background: A dozen years ago, when Brian Duffy, Dan Brandenstein and Rick Hieb (not coincidentally, all working for Lockheed Martin at the time) were at the FI, they held talks in a room in front of an audience.

Saturday, NASA Astronaut Christina Hammock Koch's talk was private. Nothing was mentioned of that, unless you interpret "NASA's Driven to Explore exhibit will be available for public viewing ..." to be the ONLY thing that was open to the public. Just "Astronaut Christina Koch will share her stories about what it takes to become an astronaut ...."

You needed a ticket from GSK Science to attend her talk. Thankfully, a friend bought me a ticket, which was held near the Ben Franklin National Monument, which is a free space in the Institute (e.g.,you don't need to purchase admission to see Ben.)

As well, nobody at the museum knew anything about the Philadelphia STEM Festival, which this was. And a bit of background: The World Science Festival in NYC, while held on the NYU campus, features a street full of exhibitors (free) and some ticketed and some other free events.

Outside was the NASA truck and a spacesuit to take a photo with. That's it. There may have been some stuff downstairs, but I didn't take a look.

It doesn't bother me that there was no signing. I just wish NASA and/or the Franklin Institute could have made things clearer as to what was going on - that the STEM festival (which I couldn't find info on) was a separate, ticketed event, and perhaps a link to the festival would have been nice. My Tweets to the Institute went unanswered, and NASA-JSC, to their credit, replied to me on their Facebook, saying their NASA exhibit will be outside and hard to miss."

A long time coming

As a friend likes to say, "Make sure your tombstone has a postbox."

I sent a photo and the cover to a rare Flight Requirements Document for STS-61L  out to John Konrad in May 2013 (!) - and when I didn't hear back after "a while," I regretted the decision to send the cover .

To my surprise, a white envelope with some older stamps arrived in the mailbox the other day. As I usually write from whom the SASE  was, I glanced at the bottom corner. Seeing Konrad's name, I couldn't wait to see whether or not my stuff was being returned unsigned.

Nope. I had a nice success that day. By coincidence, I had just read the day before of someone having a success with Konrad, though with a shorter return time.

61L, scheduled for a November 1986 launch, was the latest, calendar-wise, civilian shuttle mission for which any kind of planning had been done.

Using Columbia, the flight was envisioned as a November 6 launch, landing on Flight Day 6. There would have been a crew of seven - five NASA astronauts "plus AF weatherman plus Hughes PS."

No NASA astronauts were named to the flight at the time of Challenger.

The US Air Force PS most likely would have been Fred P. Lewis Jr., a meteorologist. According to "Who's Who In Space," Lewis was part of the Weather Officer in Space Experiment which was intended to allow a trained weather officer to make visual and photographic observations of the atmosphere and ionosphere during orbit.

Lewis was one of five finalists selected for the program in October 1985. I find it strange that a military PS would fly on what is essentially a civilian mission.

Konrad was the Hughes payload specialist, and would have overseen the deployment of the Syncom IV-5 satellite. Following Challenger, most commercial satellites were banned from deploying by the space shuttle, and Konrad lost his chance to go into space.

Syncom IV-5 was deployed during STS-32R, also by Columbia. Other payloads scheduled for 61L included the GSTAR-C on a Pam DII and the Material Science Laboratory-3.

Hughes' first payload specialist, Greg Jarvis, was killed on Challenger.

Now what's the chances of getting Steve Cunningham, Konrad's backup, to sign the cover?