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Author
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Topic: Help with ASTP autograph identification
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-19-2018 09:45 AM
   
Can someone please help with identifying the cosmonaut autographs on this Apollo-Soyuz Test Project lithograph?  |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2914
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 03-19-2018 09:59 AM
Are you sure they're cosmonauts as I don't recognize any of them from the groups
(maybe later selected cosmonauts within the last few years or so)? I have seen, though, signatures on ASTP lithos like this of several Soviet working team members (non-flight personnel) that visited JSC in 1974-75 as part of the Russian joint flight delegation. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-19-2018 10:28 AM
I didn't recognize the signatures either, hence the request for assistance. The owner was gifted the litho without information as to whom it was who signed. |
Apollo-Soyuz
Member Posts: 1205
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004
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posted 03-19-2018 06:57 PM
Robert, how many autographs are on the photo? I tried to enlarge the signatures but cannot tell. A higher resolution scan would be helpful. They may be part of the backup crews. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-19-2018 09:05 PM
I count at least eight autographs. I have asked the litho's owner to share a higher resolution scan. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2914
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 03-19-2018 09:10 PM
While checking through hundreds of signed ASTP covers, and long and behold, I did come across a jointly signed cover with at least three (maybe four) of possibly leading Russian space engineers on the litho. Two of the signatures on the litho appear at the top of my signed cover, both columns, with one at the bottom, second up. |
SpaceSteve
Member Posts: 428
From: San Antonio TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 03-19-2018 09:12 PM
The one on the bottom appears to be Valeri Kubasov. It's a match to the example in Sanabria's Cosmonaut Autographs Identification Guide.My apologies. I see now that there are actually two signatures at the bottom-right, and neither one is Kubasov. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2914
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 03-19-2018 09:14 PM
I am not seeing a Kubasov autograph at the bottom of the litho, however, I am not able to see or make out clearly any signature patterns toward the bottom-left of the photo. But at least three, and maybe four, of the signers on the litho are of a Soviet ASTP leading space engineers' delegation that visited JSC in 1974.
In my opinion, and from what I can see, none of the signatures on the litho are of any ASTP cosmonaut backup or support crewmen, however, the USSR did not select any "support crewman" for ASTP as they were all identified as Crews 1 through 4 consisting of paired cosmonaut "flight worthy" teams. Crew 1 was the prime with Leonov and Kubasov with Crews 2-4 serving as backup crewmen (8 total). The first or main backup crew was Anatoli Filipchenko and Nikolai Rukavishnikov with four other cosmonauts that had been assigned to the joint manned spaceflight project in 1973. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-20-2018 07:37 AM
Via the owner, here are enlargements of the signatures: 
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Bob M
Member Posts: 1745
From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 03-20-2018 12:16 PM
I agree with Ken that they are not cosmonaut signatures — at least none who have flown — and are probably signatures from some of the delegation of Soviet space engineers involved in ASTP planning. |
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