posted 06-21-2025 11:18 AM               

I'm one who collects autographs on both photos and covers, but also have a real interest in signed letters and notes from people in space. When mailing off an item and asking for an autograph, it's always a (rare) special bonus and treat to also receive an accompanying signed note or letter.

I've presented here six examples of signed letters from a variety of individuals: from someone who walked on the moon; to a widow of a pilot who was called "The first spaceman" and was one of the first three pilots chosen to fly the X-15 rocket plane, but never got the opportunity; to a school teacher.

Signed letters are a great way to collect space autographs, with the content important and often of significant interest and even more so when official/personal stationary is used. But collecting signed letters from space personalities seems to be a neglected collecting area.

To begin with, here is a letter from shuttle astronaut Rick Husband relating to my request for his autograph from a military base in Europe prior to his reporting to JSC to begin his astronaut career, which tragically ended with the flight of Columbia on STS-107.

I received this letter from The Reverend and retired Major General, John B. Medaris, upon my asking if he would be able to provide a signed letter from Wernher von Braun, as at that time I was very determined in that pursuit. Gen. Medaris was earlier head of the Army Ballistic Missile Command at the Redstone Arsenal and the Redstone and Atlas rocket programs (go to Wikipedia to read about his extraordinary life. Not many people could have said that they landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings and later were almost hit by a V-2 rocket explosion).

John Young signed this NASA Manned Spacecraft Center stationary sheet and included content about his assignment to the Apollo 16 mission and the planned landing site at the moon's Descartes lunar highlands.

Iven C. Kincheloe, Jr. was a Korean War fighter ace, X-2 pilot and the first pilot to exceed 100,000 feet in altitude. He was selected as the X-15 chief pilot, but died at age 30 in an aircraft accident before the first X-15 flight. His autograph belongs in any serious test aircraft and X-15 collection, but is not easily found.

His widow, Dorothy Kincheloe, kindly provided me with one of his signed military membership cards, along with several letters relating to "Kinch", as she referred to him.

Peggy Lathlaen was one of the ten Teacher in Space finalists from which one was to be selected as the first teacher to fly in space on the Space Shuttle.

I was involved in trying to obtain autographs of all ten T-in-S finalists and Mrs. Laethlaen was kind enough to provide her autograph for me and to also provide this letter on T-in-S stationary. This was received in 1987 after the loss of Christa McAuliffe on Challenger. She references Barbara Morgan hopefully flying later, as she did.

Jack Swigert was elected to the US Senate from Colorado but died before assuming office. This 1982 note from him was sent to thank me for my donation to his candidacy.

posted 06-26-2025 06:51 AM               

It reminded me of several signed letters that I have from Alan Shepard including one that he sent to my then 10 year old son in response to a Mad Magazine story that my son sent to him for an autograph. Shepard's response was pretty abrupt.

posted 06-26-2025 06:28 PM               

As requested, here are several more letters/notes from a variety of people involved in space, including: a CNN correspondent with hopes of flying to Mir and being the first journalist in space; a letter from an astronaut about his time on Skylab; and a note from a Space Shuttle Payload Specialist informing me that he has been transferred to STS-51L.

John Holliman was a CNN journalist and was CNN's primary space reporter. His dream was to fly to Mir and would be the first journalist in space. But his dream was not to be.

In this handwritten letter from Jim Irwin he mentions about the Apollo 15 flown covers being released to the Apollo 15 crew and responds to my (low) evaluation of them.

In this humorous note from NASA Astronaut Michael Barratt, he mentions about his difficult medical tests he endured in his quest to be selected as a NASA Astronaut. His unpleasant tests paid off, as he flew on three spaceflights: Soyuz TMA-14 to the ISS, STS-133 and SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

Greg Jarvis was a member of and removed from at least two Space Shuttle crews before being transferred to the doomed STS-51L Challenger flight. In this brief notation added to the back of my letter to him, he informs me of his new crew assignment.

This impressive Hughes patch was issued for Jarvis being Hughes' first Payload Specialist and probably the same type patch was worn by him on 51L.

In this signed letter from Jerry Carr, he includes memories of his 84-day stay on the Skylab Orbital Workshop.

In my quest to obtain signed letters by all 31 Mercury-Gemini-Apollo astronauts, I paid Jerry Carr twice his standard signing fee to compose a letter about his most memorable experiences aboard Skylab. This informative signed letter is the result.

My quest for signed letters by all 31 Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts ended prematurely at about 20 of the 31 because of the difficulty to find and cost of many, and instead I settled for signed letters by all 12 moonwalkers — which is difficult enough and expensive, but doable.

posted 07-01-2025 10:44 AM               

To continue with signed letters and notes from space personalities, here are four more signed letters, all with interesting content.

John posted an interesting two page letter from Glenn Lunney. Here is another letter by another NASA Flight Director, Donald Puddy. He was also an autograph and space cover collector and was very helpful with fellow collectors. Note that surprisingly his letter was dated on January 27, 1977 - the tenth anniversary of Apollo 1.

The next two letters are from NASA astronauts who were involved in aircraft accidents, with one very serious. NASA Shuttle Astronaut Karl Henize was involved in a T-38 aircraft landing mishap caused by a landing gear collapse, but as he mentioned, avoided any injury. Later at age 66 in 1993 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but died at 18,000 feet during the climb.

Fred Haise was not as fortunate as Henize was with his aircraft accident and his crash was much more serious. Haise was piloting a vintage World War II BT-13 trainer aircraft and it crashed upon landing and resulted in Haise suffering second degree burns over 50% of his body. He fortunately recovered and later in 1977 was one of four NASA Astronauts who piloted orbiter Enterprise on the Approach and Landing Test flights at Edwards AFB.

This second very special letter from Fred Haise resulted from my inquiry to him about the netting that he personally removed from Apollo 13 Lunar Module Aquarius prior to it being destroyed in Earth's atmosphere. The netting was later cut into small sections and attached to cards, signed by the Apollo 13 crew, and then presented to the many people who were involved in getting the crew safely back. This is my favorite letter and has historical content.

These cards with flown material are highly prized by collectors and two types from Apollo 13 were done: one type with a piece of seat cushion from Command Module Odyssey, and a second type with a piece of netting removed by Haise from Aquarius, as shown here.