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  Signing history, experience: Commercial crew

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Author Topic:   Signing history, experience: Commercial crew
JBoe
Member

Posts: 983
From: Edgewater, MD
Registered: Oct 2012

posted 06-23-2018 06:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for JBoe   Click Here to Email JBoe     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was wondering if anyone had any experience in obtaining autographs of the named commercial crew members, as well as advice in how to obtain autographs of Robert Behnken, Eric Boe, Christopher Ferguson, Sunita Williams and Douglas Hurley through the mail?

I have a small item that I would like to have signed by them. Thanks!

Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member

Posts: 3446
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 06-24-2018 07:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hart Sastrowardoyo   Click Here to Email Hart Sastrowardoyo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not through the mail. Suni did sign in person, and I have a photo of the four commercial crew astronauts that "just" needs the other three.

Bob M
Member

Posts: 1761
From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-27-2019 07:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bob M   Click Here to Email Bob M     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'd like to learn if anyone has information, good or bad, about autograph results from either SpaceX or Boeing regarding astronauts training with them.

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are training at SpaceX for the Crew Dragon DM-2 fight and astronauts Chris Ferguson, Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann are training at Boeing for the Starliner CST-100 flight.

As those of us who collect astronaut autographs know, most of the astronauts now in training at SpaceX and Boeing are not good about signing, especially through the mail, and I do wonder if things may have changed with them at all.

Astronauts Behnken, Hurley, Fincke, Mann, Josh Cassada and Victor Glover, especially, have not been good about signing in the past and I have to wonder if anything has changed with them, with them now involved with private spaceflight companies.

BMckay
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Posts: 3305
From: MA, USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 08-27-2019 11:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BMckay   Click Here to Email BMckay     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
My take on it is that they are busier with commercial crew and thus they have even less time to sign through the mail.

Bob M
Member

Posts: 1761
From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-27-2019 01:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bob M   Click Here to Email Bob M     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I haven't mailed any requests myself to either SpaceX or Boeing for astronaut autographs, but certainly would expect that others have and wonder if anyone has gotten any response or just nothing?

If there is in effect a no signing policy, then I do wonder if either company has responded to collectors to advise them of such perhaps with their returned requests?

Too busy as a reason for not signing? The Space Shuttle astronauts, both individually and entire crews, were generally good about responding to autograph requests while training, even close to their flights.

And I do wonder if even the SpaceX head man, Elon Musk, has responded to autograph requests? If he hasn't, then prospects for any autograph cooperation by others is doubtful.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 44010
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-27-2019 05:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Almost all Starliner crew training is done at Johnson Space Center. Boeing located its simulators and mockups at JSC and contracted NASA's Flight Operations Directorate to run its Starliner mission control. The astronauts spend very little, if any time at Boeing.

SpaceX crews train at the company's Hawthorne headquarters, but are not stationed there. They are invited out to California for training sessions and then return to JSC.

Beyond the test flights (and even then, in the case of Starliner's CFT mission), the majority of the crew training is for living and working aboard the International Space Station, which involves neither company. The crews may spend more time overseas at ESA, Roscosmos and JAXA facilities then they do at the companies launching them.

eurospace
Member

Posts: 2623
From: Berlin, Germany
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-27-2019 11:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
All astronauts selected for the two new vehicles have an exceptionnally bad track record for signing through the mail. Chris Ferguson was, in the past, the only exception to this rule. One might think whether "does not respond to autograph requests" was a prime selection criteria to be selected for this particular group.

Bob M
Member

Posts: 1761
From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-28-2019 09:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bob M   Click Here to Email Bob M     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks, Robert and Juergen, for your comments and information about SpaceX's and Boeing's involvement with "their" astronauts.

Robert's information indicates that sending astronaut autograph requests to either SpaceX or Boeing would not be recommended and autograph requests should be sent instead to JSC/CB.

And no one would know better than Juergen about astronaut signing habits, so prospects aren't good for autographs from the JSC Astronaut Office of the SpaceX and Boeing astronauts, but still worth a try.

I cringed when the names of the astronauts selected for the SpaceX and Boeing manned space flights were announced, as from past experience I knew that it would have been hard to have selected a group of more difficult signers. It's really a Who's Who of non-signers.

Jim Behling
Member

Posts: 1519
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 08-28-2019 01:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
They aren't Boeing or SpaceX astronauts (except Ferguson), they are NASA astronauts. They are NASA employees flying on Boeing or SpaceX vehicles. Therefore, Boeing and SpaceX would not be their location for mail.

And for corporate astronauts like Ferguson, the JSC Astronaut Office will have nothing to do with his mail. His would be at Boeing.

Mike Dixon
Member

Posts: 1455
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 08-28-2019 06:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I couldn't tell you how hard it was for me to complete my orange spacesuit individually signed portraits for the STS-135 crew.

Three were really quick. Took five years for the last one, but with the assistance of Bryan McKay and one of his contacts, completed the task. Probably my best framed piece.

eurospace
Member

Posts: 2623
From: Berlin, Germany
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-29-2019 03:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Bob M:
Robert's information indicates that sending astronaut autograph requests to either SpaceX or Boeing would not be recommended and autograph requests should be sent instead to JSC/CB.
I actually had sent a request to Ferguson under his Boeing address, which had worked fine in the past. My request came back to me as undeliverables. So I sent it to JSC now, but I have yet to see a reply.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 44010
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-26-2020 07:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA posted this photo (click to see the full frame) of multiple SpaceX Demo-2 crew portraits signed by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley prior to their launch.

Daugherty54
Member

Posts: 603
From: Cabot, Arkansas, USA
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 05-28-2020 07:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Daugherty54   Click Here to Email Daugherty54     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Getting anything from the Astronaut Office at JSC is difficult. It is as if they no longer care about public outreach.

I can't recall the last time I got anything other than an autopen from them. I have pretty much quit wasting my postage.

Jim Behling
Member

Posts: 1519
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 05-29-2020 10:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Daugherty54:
Getting anything from the Astronaut Office at JSC is difficult.
Because people have been selling the autographs.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 44010
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-29-2020 10:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
While that is partly a factor (John Young used to warn new astronaut candidates classes about not signing for just such a reason), the primary factor is budget constraints.

Astronauts no longer have the mail room support, nor an unlimited supply of lithos to send out.

albatron
Member

Posts: 2762
From: Stuart, Florida
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 06-02-2020 09:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for albatron   Click Here to Email albatron     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Totally true Robert. I've sent a few things in the last year to CB, and no response. Previously reliable astronaut signers.

Plus, with tracking, it shows delivered, but to the box. So it gets there, but then disappears in the void.

disglobes
Member

Posts: 601
From: Orting, WA
Registered: May 2000

posted 06-04-2020 11:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for disglobes   Click Here to Email disglobes     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have had some success from NASA-JSC Code CB between July 2019 and January 2020. So some things are still getting signed. With that being said, I have many other request sitting there so I think it is more hit and miss depending on who you write to.

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