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The below article was written for the May/June 2001 issue of Autograph News. It is reprinted here with the permission of the editors.
What About the Other 357?
by Bob McLeod
If you are reading this site, the chances are you collect autographs related to space exploration and space flight, especially astronaut autographs in general. But, which particular autographs do most of us collect?
From my observations through the years, including watching eBay and various space auctions, I feel that most of us mainly concentrate on autographs of the early American astronauts, those who flew in space on Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz.
That's a total of only 43 astronauts receiving (by far) most of the attention.
These were the first Americans in space and 24 of these 43 astronauts went at least to the vicinity of the Moon and 12 walked on it. No collection would be complete without their autographs, of course. Certainly these 43 space pioneers shouldn't be ignored, but from what I've seen, that's exactly how we treating too many other very worthy space voyagers.
These 43 count for only nine percent of the total number of astronauts and cosmonauts who have flown since Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961. From Gagarin to Space Shuttle astronaut Jeff Williams, on STS-101 in May 2000, there have been a grand total of 393 different space voyagers in 39 years of human space flight.
So, what could be a more obvious and logical way to collect than to concentrate on autographs from everyone who has flown in space? But, not so fast! There are other good ways, too. It is my intention here to offer suggestions for several interesting and challenging ways to collect astronaut and cosmonaut autographs.
Besides collecting autographs of all the space voyagers, which I call Category One, there are at least five other ways or categories to choose from.
Category Two:
Autographs of all the astronauts who have flown in space on US/NASA spacecraft (now 287 on 129 flights). This is a popular way to collect and I suspect that those who collect autographs other than just the 43 pioneer American astronauts, collect all flown astronaut autographs. This category, of course, includes all the Space Shuttle guys, and that's a bunch.
Category Three:
Autographs of all the NASA Astronauts. At this time, not counting the 17 new NASA Astronaut Candidates just named, there have been a total of 293 NASA Astronauts chosen in 17 different classes. This is a very large and challenging category, as some of the NASA Astronauts never flew and are somewhat obscure and their autographs hard to find. For example, good luck in finding single autographs of Ed Givens (his perhaps the rarest of all), C.C. Williams, Steve Thorne, and even some recent Shuttle astronauts, such as Yvonne Cagle and Christopher "Gus" Loria. A complete collection of portraits or covers autographed by all 293 NASA Astronauts is a rare thing indeed, but a great challenge to the ambitious.
Category Four:
Autographs of all 252 flown Space Shuttle astronauts, from STS-1 (John Young and Bob Crippen) to STS-101 (Jeff Williams). Yeah, I know, Shuttle astronaut autographs aren't as cool as the 43 pre-Shuttle guys, but everyone who has flown in space is special and belongs to that most elite club of less than 400 space voyagers. This is a deceptively difficult category, as a number of the Shuttle guys just haven't autographed much and their autographs take some searching to find, such as Lodewijk van den Berg, Ron Parise, Ron Sega, Maurizio Cheli, Kay Hire and Valery Tokarev. But a complete Shuttle astronaut autograph collection is quite possible and it is an ongoing collection; with the Shuttle continuing to fly, there will be a new flown Shuttle astronaut or two on almost every flight.
Category Five:
Autographs of about 115 cosmonauts who have flown on Soviet/Russian space missions. Sad to say, this is probably the most ignored category of the five by American collectors, but certainly contains names of many of the most historic and significant people in spaceflight history. And still their autographs are mostly easy to find and reasonably priced and many still autograph through the mail.
So that's five challenging categories to choose from, but there is one more category, a category I'll call...
Ultimate Category Six!
Only the brave and overly ambitious should venture into this collecting category, but those who do collect autographs of everyone who has undergone official astronaut or cosmonaut training, whether or not they have flown. This category includes everyone from all five previous categories and many more. Included are the many "unknown cosmonauts" who have trained in obscurity, but retired or died before flying; the many back-up and alternate Space Shuttle Payload Specialists; and the more than 30 military Manned Spaceflight Engineers who were trained to accompany DoD satellites on Shuttle missions. Only two MSEs ever flew, although several were assigned to flights before the program was canceled due mainly to the Challenger accident (getting all their autographs would certainly prove challenging).
The Dutch collector, Bert Vis, has probably the most impressive and complete "Ultimate" collection, as he has autographs of ALL 393 space voyagers and a total of 702 of the approximately 800 who have undergone official spaceflight training. And, of course, Robert Pearlman is busy getting autographs, in person, in his "Who's Who in Space" book of all the people who have been involved in spaceflight training.
And how about me? I've been collecting now for 28 years and I concentrate on Category One (all space voyagers), Category Three (NASA Astronauts), and Category Four (Flown Shuttle astronauts). But, really, Category One is about enough for anyone, as it includes all flown astronauts; all flown cosmonauts; all flown Shuttle astronauts; most of the NASA astronauts; and even the "sacred 43!"
What type material or medium to collect your autographs on, such as portraits or covers? That's for you to decide, but I would suggest that you choose one or the other to give your collection uniformity and consistency, but mixing the two is certainly acceptable and easier.
Now a word on completion. Any collector should be thinking of working toward completing his/her collection someday -- that's part of the fun of it. But of these six categories, only three can be considered as realistically being possible to complete. Of course, the Ultimate Category is virtually impossible (but Bert Vis is closing in!), and Categories One (Space Voyagers) and Five (Cosmonauts) are certainly near impossible mainly because of the two ill-fated Soviet rookie cosmonauts on Soyuz 11: Viktor Patsayev and Georgi Dobrovolsky. Cosmonaut tradition prevented almost all early cosmonauts from autographing before their first flights and Patsayev and Dobrovolsky died at the end of their first flight. So Patsayev and Dobrovolsky autographs are extremely rare and authentication is a major problem. But several of their autographs have surfaced recently and it's up to the collector to decide if he wants to spend a lot of money for something that's difficult to authenticate.
So when you get tired of chasing the "sacred 43" for autographs, why don't you consider starting a collection of one (or two!) of these interesting and challenging categories?
Finally, a word to the wise and a word of warning. At this late date, 39 years after Yuri Gagarin became the first of 393 space voyagers, genuine autographs are becoming more and more difficult to find and more and more expensive. And fakes are certainly prevalent of the rarer autographs. Good luck with your collecting!
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Bob McLeod is a space enthusiast and long-time collector concentrating on astronaut and cosmonaut autographs, with emphasis on the space voyagers, NASA astronauts and crew autographed covers and crew photos. He especially receives a thrill from meeting space explorers in person and has had the honor to meet about 40. The autographs he receives in-person are a cherished part of his collection.
He can be reached at mcleodrobert44@cs.com.
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