posted 12-16-2016 11:38 AM               

Locally, we temporarily lost two venues of collecting this year. Chantilly Day, which usually has Dan Tani (sometimes with another astronaut) had issues with their space, but they said they'll be back next year. Organizers usually hold their event in May. (And this year I was finally going to go!)

Tani moving to Japan, though, makes me curious if they'll get another astronaut in his place.

The East End Music and Arts Festival, which also has an astronaut or two in attendance (one year was Frank Culbertson, maybe also Leroy Chiao), also wasn't held this year. They promise they'll be back in 2017 as well.

Due to other responsibilities, I wasn't able to do as many astronaut presentations as in previous years. Always good memories of the ones I was able to go to, though: I finally met Roger Crouch at the annual National Family Engineering Day (long on my bucket list to go) and got to see Dan Barry (and his wife!) in nearby New York City.

Anna Lee Fisher was also in NYC and I got to again meet Scott and Mark Kelly (along with Tonyspace!) at their hometown. I fulfilled a promise to my kid by getting Mark to sign her copy of "Mousetronaut Goes to Mars."

The revival of Space Congress was nice, even if I had a few of the astronauts that were there. Scott Vangen (STS-67 alternate payload specialist), who was there as an attendee and not a guest, was surprised someone wanted his signature. (And it was nice having dinner with MarylandSpace!)

Picked up some nice autographs from the Mike Z. sales as well as an STS-87 crew phto from someone who said one of the astronauts was having a clearing-out sale at their house.

posted 12-17-2016 06:28 PM            

This year I have been fortunate to have collected many. In April at Pontefract I secured Tom Stafford's, which was a bonus as I was never prepared to pay the high price at other venues he was charging, but this came with the lecture ticket.

In May at the Science Museum in London as well as Helen Sharman nine of the eleven other Association of European Space Explorers signed. As it was very random at the end of the presentation I missed the other two.

October and back to Pontefract and Mark and Scott Kelly duly signed after their joint lecture. Later that month I saw Tim Peake in Leicester but no autographs at that event. Hopefully at a later date perhaps.

In November attending the lecture by Michael Foale in Cambridge he issued signed photos of himself to all attendees.

This December yesterday I travelled the sixty or so miles to the book signing by Chris Hadfield in Ely, Cambridgeshire. Having seen his brilliant lecture (and singing) at Oxford in January I had been disappointed not to have met him but when seeing through collectSPACE he was over here again I took the opportunity. It was slightly disappointing that his books they were selling he had already signed but he was writing inscriptions. I bought his new children's book "The Darkest Dark" and his "You Are Here." He then very kindly inscribed and signed his excellent autobiography "An Astronauts Guide To life On Earth" which I had taken with me which I had hoped to get signed in Oxford but it was well worth the wait. It was the first book signing I have attended which I enjoyed but is that the normal practice to have books already signed?

posted 12-18-2016 03:53 AM               

In April with Space Lectures Tom Stafford signed a WSS picture, a giant ASTP poster and an original 1968 initial lunar landing poster.

In June I saw Buzz Aldrin at Oxford University and he did a book signing after the talk.

Also in June I went to Spacefest where I took five pieces to be signed. An original Apollo 8 flight plan poster that James Lovell had already signed in 2015 was signed by Sy Liebergot, Milt Heflin, Gerry Griffin and Glynn Lunney.

An Apollo 13 poster that had already by signed by Lovell and Fred Haise was then signed by Sy Liebergot and Gerry Griffin.

My main piece was a lunar trajectory poster that I started work on in 2014 that had already been signed by 15 and I added 12 more signatures at Spacefest. Michael Collins, Gene Cernan, Alan Bean, Dave Scott, Richard Gordon, Jim McDivitt, Paul Weitz, Dee O'Hara, Glynn Lunney, Milt Heflin, Gerry Griffin and Manfred Von Ehrenfried. As well as signatures I asked the astronauts to write the mission dates, names of the spacecraft, the latin name for the landing site and quotes. Charlie Duke, Fred Haise and James Lovell had already signed this piece previously so I had them sign the initial lunar landing poster and add the inscriptions to the lunar trajectory poster. Michael Collins also signed the lunar landing poster.

The space shuttle/space station poster was signed by Paul Weitz, Jack Lousma, Jerry Ross, Vance Brand and Nicole Stott.

At the end of June I went to the Starmus Festival and had two books signed by Rusty Schweickart, Chris Hadfield, Claude Nicollier and Garrett Reisman.

In October I saw Mark and Scott Kelly and had the shuttle poster, a space station picture and the special edition Time magazine signed.

The day after been at Space Lectures I went to Birmingham to a Star Trek convention and I saw Al Worden who signed the lunar landing poster.

posted 01-06-2017 07:59 PM               

After three years, I got back my 61L Flight Requirement Document and a photo from John Konrad. Also: Completed an STS-1 and 135 crew photo (lacking only Young), and filled some holes in my collection - portraits of Harbaugh, Griggs, Wang, Frick, J. Kelly, D. Brown and Patrick as well as 51A, 87 and 117 crew photos.

posted 01-07-2017 05:50 PM            

• Ed Gibson signed the base of my 1/200 Skylab Saturn V
  
• Signed photo of launch director Mike Leinbach (part of the KSCVC Launch Director Tour)
  
• Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley and Mike Leinbach signed my 1/96 paper SLS model
  
• Jim Lovell signed base of my 1/24 Gemini 12 with Agena
  
• Tom Stafford signed base of my 1/48 Gemini 9A with ADTA
  
• Charlie Duke signed base of my 1/72 Apollo 16 LM Orion
  
• Signed photo of Dee O'Hara
  
• Rick Searfoss signed copy of his book, Liftoff.

posted 01-10-2017 03:20 PM               

I had several successes last year with signed items by Scott Altman, Brian Duffy, Bill McArthur, Bill Readdy, Jerry Ross, Shannon Lucid, Pedro Duque, Gerhard Thiele. All of them I met in person and these persons were absolutely wonderful.

Signed items from John Grunsfeld, Al Sacco and Woody Spring did I get mail (SASE). The signatures of Woody Spring are by far the most exciting ones because I waited for more than two and a half years for a return.

posted 01-11-2017 10:06 PM               

After hanging it up on my wall and looking at it for a few months, I read the mission transcript again and felt that the inscriptions I had them write were incomplete. When Borman did another signing last fall, I got him to write the complete description he gave that night. In November, I took the photo to the ASF show and got Lovell to write his complete description.

I must say, I love the second one a lot more than the first one. Having the complete descriptions by both astronauts on the photo makes me appreciate it a lot more.

I check Moonpans almost daily. A few months ago, I saw two new Charlie Duke mini-pans on his site, which I absolutely love. I didn't buy either one because I prefer to have my photos signed with mission quotes. After scouring the mission transcript, I found some great descriptions that Duke gave about the time he shot those two pans. I bought the unsigned pans, took them to the ASF show, where he wrote his descriptions from the moon on the photos.

I also purchased several signed shuttle crew photos from the Lunar Legacies auctions, including STS-107. Some really awesome fellow cS'ers supplied me with an STS-8 crew signed photo and another one sold me several shuttle EVA photos. I'm grateful to both of them for their generosity and support.

posted 01-13-2017 10:34 AM               

I also met Joe Tanner, a fellow University of Illinois grad, at the Kennedy Space Center. That was thrilling to watch his reaction when I said "Go Illini" during our photo opp.

posted 01-13-2017 12:32 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ronpur:
I am not much in getting autographs, but this year, I did pick up a nice Joe Allen, one of my favorite astronauts.

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Glad you did that. Allen's signature has changed, similar to Don Williams', which got smaller and smaller as the years went on.