posted 12-06-2025 06:24 PM               

Now, it is mostly a lack of positive responses, especially from the NASA Astronauts at Johnson Space Center, who for many years were a reliable source for replies through the mail.

There are many categories collectors have specialized in, with a popular one being autographs of space travelers from all countries. With over 630 individuals who have experienced orbital spaceflights (with over 700 total, including sub-orbital space flights), there are plenty of autographs to collect and pursue.

Here are some of the many autograph categories of individuals involved in spaceflight:

• All space travelers - orbital (630+), sub-orbital and overall (700+)
  
• Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flown astronauts (41)
  
• All flown astronauts through Shuttle (385)
  
• NASA Astronauts - from Group 1 to 24 (370)
  
• Space Shuttle flown astronauts (355)
  
• Women who flew on orbital space flights (80+)
  
• Apollo lunar astronauts (24)
  
• Apollo moonwalkers (12)

Here is a sheet autographed by the entire 44-member NASA Astronaut class of 1996/Group 16 (including ten international astronauts; two who did not fly; three guys named Kelly; and three of the STS-107/Columbia crew).

posted 12-06-2025 10:34 PM               

Teacher/Educator in space.

Payload specialists.

And of course the X-15 astronauts.

posted 12-07-2025 05:16 AM               

(I don't regard signatures on index card or paper slips glued to a cover as suitable for my collection — for me, the signature must be applied directly to the body of the envelope.)

There are 76 astronaut and cosmonaut signatures in total in this category. However three are impossible to find: Dobrovolsky, Patseyev, and Adams. So there are 73 available to collect.

I have managed to obtain all 23 Russians and 39 of the Americans, giving me 62 in total.

posted 12-09-2025 12:25 PM               

I began my space travelers autograph cover collection in 1989 and it contains autographs of 562 space travelers from Yuri Gagarin (#1) in 1961 to Kud-Sverchkov (#564) in 2020 when the collection ended because of several factors, including the difficulty and frustration in acquiring autographs from first-time flyers and the cost of continuing.

My space traveler autographed covers were acquired in many different ways, with a fair number signed from Star City, USSR, via mail-in requests. The large majority resulted from mail-in requests to the astronaut office at NASA/JSC. I also acquired some from dealers and other collectors, and a small minority in person. Over 90% of the collection are individually signed covers, and the rest are small signed portrait photos more toward the end of the collection.

As it has been noted, it's not realistic to find authentic autographs of the two Soyuz 11 rookies, as they surely exist only on official documents and personal papers and, as such, a complete space travelers autograph set can never be completed - although for many years Soyuz 11 forgeries have been circulating and selling and beginning back in the 1970's.

As examples, shown below are eight covers from my space travelers collection, including information about each one.

Top: Alexei Leonov, through the mail - postmarked in 1993 from Moscow

Bottom: Yuri Glazkov, in person in 1995 at KSC during STS-71 launch preparations

Top: Rare autograph of Anatoli Levchenko (at top) on Soyuz TM-4 flown cover from dealer Alex Panchenko in 2003. Also autographed by Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov

Bottom: Toyohiro Akiyama from a collector in Tono City, Japan

Top: Eileen Collins, Houston/JSC, 1995

Bottom: Yuri Gidzinko from Juergen Esders in 1994

Top: Ilan Ramon through the mail from Houston/JSC in 1999

Bottom: Gregory Olsen, Spaceflight Participant, through the mail from Princeton, NJ in 2006

posted 12-20-2025 05:33 PM               

I have them almost all, US, Russia, CSA, JAXA, China, ESA, tourists, payloads, testpilots, von Braun engineers (70) and also unflown Russian cosmonauts (as well as Vladimir Ilyushin).

Some I could never obtain, as Dobrovolsky, Patsayev and several Shuttle deceased US astronauts. As I saw collecting was going down the last years, and commercial space flights make it almost to impossible (I only still follow the Artemis Missions, and try to to contact the involved astronauts) to follow, and there is almost no reply anymore from the US or Russia, I started to sell already signed photos, as Swigert in WSS, Anders, lunar moonwalkers (but I will see I always have at least one moonwalker in my collection).

The period between the Skylab missions and the next moon/mars mission, will say nothing for future collectors. I heard young people telling about space as there never excisted Apollo missions, and Artemis will the first time mankind will go to the moon... a shame.

posted 01-01-2026 05:08 PM               

We've listed a lot of excellent and challenging categories for individual/single autographs, but none for the also popular crew signed material: NASA crew lithos/photos and flight covers.

A complete set of crew signed photos or flight covers for all 166 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle flights would be a dream collection and something to spend much of a collecting lifetime on, along with spending a huge amount of money.

That's mostly out of the question for almost of us collectors, but there are a number of other crew signed categories of significance and of less difficulty.

• 6 Mercury flights (MR-3 through MA-9)
  
• 10 Gemini flights (GT-3 through GT-12)
  
• 13 Apollo flights (Apollo 7 through Skylab)
  
• 31 Mercury-Gemini-Apollo-Skylab flights
  
• 135 Space Shuttle flights (STS-1 through STS-135)

There are a number of rare/expensive and hard to find crew signed photos/covers that would be encountered in the 166, such as MR-4, GT-3, GT-4, GT-8, GT-10, Apollo 8, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, STS-9, STS-51L, STS-107 and a large number of various Shuttle flight crews.

But for those not with the difficult goal of completion, certainly the majority of the 166 NASA spaceflight crew signed photos/covers can be found and many existing in large quantities.

For two examples, here are crew signed NASA lithos of two of the 31 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab spaceflights, with the GT-11 not of any real scarcity, but the Apollo 13 with the actual flight crew difficult to find.

posted 01-01-2026 09:56 PM               

Thinking about other space selections, mentioned earlier were groups like the Manned Spaceflight Engineers, MOL Pilots, X-20 Pilots, etc. I now thought of another, the Teacher in Space group.

Most collectors, obviously, know of Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan. Some may even know of the 10 finalists from which a primary (Christa) and a backup (Barbara) were chosen.

Prior to that, each US state, District of Columbia, and territory (e.g. Guam) submitted two Teacher in Space candidates each - a total of 114 candidates - for the final selections.

NASA announced 10 finalists at the national level in July 1985:

• Sharon Christa McAuliffe (Primary) - Concord, NH
  
• Barbara R. Morgan (Backup) - McCall, ID
  
• Kathleen Anne Beres - Baltimore, MD
  
• Robert Foerster - West Lafayette, IN
  
• Judith Garcia - Alexandria, VA
  
• Peggy Lathlaen - Friendswood, TX
  
• David M. Marquart - Boise, ID
  
• Michael W. Metcalf - Hardwick, VT
  
• Richard A. Methia - New Bedford, MA
  
• Niki Mason Wenger - Parkersburg, WV

Here is a picture of the 10 finalists at JSC on July 9, 1985 raising their hands when asked who was going to be the first Teacher in Space.

posted 01-02-2026 04:58 PM               

It would have to start with finding an autograph of Christa McAuliffe. Barbara Morgan has been a great signer and has certainly signed many items being a flown astronaut, but it gets very difficult after that with the other eight.

The other eight probably signed a very limited number of items, so the pool of their autographs is certainly very small. Perhaps some could be reached by requests sent to their schools to be forwarded, as I did, but that was almost 40 years ago and all are certainly retired and at least in their 70's (One collector in his serious pursuit of their autographs about 10-15 years ago, had one finalist refuse to sign after being reached by mail and I believe also by phone.)

But there exists some items signed by each of the ten individually and at least two signed by all ten together.

In the Stamps and Covers forum, you can find two Space Cover of the Week entries devoted to the ten Teacher in Space finalists. One is no. 200 of Feb. 9, 2013 and the other is no. 671 of Oct. 9, 2022. One entry displays ten covers with each signed by one of the ten and the other displays a cover signed by all ten together and all canceled at Kennedy Space Center on Jan, 28, 1986.

As far as an item signed by all ten together, I know of only two, the one shown and the other with another collector.

However, the ten finalists made many tours of NASA facilities together and surely many NASA employees asked for their autographs. So probably there are a significant number of their autographs held and treasured by NASA employees.

Of interest along these lines is a letter to me from one of the ten finalists post-51L that states the following concerning the finalists' autographs (in part):

The covers you mentioned autographed by all of us are as far as I remember one of only two sets signed by all of us. I only remember doing that for two people.

While I did get two covers signed by all ten, with one shown, a friend wasn't as fortunate, as his request at the same time to the same location was not responded to or lost in the mail; a terrible shame.

Tom mentioned about the possibility of a signed photo of all ten together and the closest I can come to that is this NASA photo from June 1986, picturing nine when they were at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and signed by Barbara Morgan and Kathleen Beres.

posted 01-09-2026 02:49 PM               

I haven't had much success with the Astronaut Office, and I've had requests out for one to two years now, with the only latest response being an Suni Williams autopen. I'm glad and grateful for the run I had between the announcement of the end of the shuttle program (2009) and 2015, which is when I got a lot of my autographs, both in person and through the mail.

posted 01-11-2026 02:42 PM               

A major factor - at least concerning astronauts - as Hart has pointed out - is the almost total lack of positive autograph results from the Astronaut Office at JSC. That was a fun and often successful way to collect - never knowing what you might get.

For many years - from Mercury and continuing well into the Shuttle Program - impressive autograph collections could be assembled only by mailing requests to astronauts at Houston/JSC. Those days are over. That could be called autograph collecting just by using postage stamps. Now we have to collect using personal checks, often from purchases on eBay - which is an excellent, but often an expensive, way to add to and continue with our space autograph collections.

Of course, big auctions and dealers also have plenty of autograph material for us.

posted 01-18-2026 08:32 AM               

The British Skynet 4 Satellite Programme involved four Payload Specialists, all scheduled to fly Shuttle missions. But the group was disbanded after the Challenger accident and British Payload Specialists Peter Longhurst (STS-71D), Nigel Wood (-61H), Christopher Holmes (-71C) and Richard Farrimond (-61H) never flew and the Skynet satellites were launched instead on unmanned rockets.

Dr. Robert E, Stevenson was Payload Specialist-1 on Shuttle mission 41G but removed himself because of concern over his wife's serious illness. He was later reassigned to STS-61K, but it was canceled because of the Challenger Accident.

C.J. "Gus" Loria was the STS-113 PLT, but a severe back injury near flight time disqualified him from the flight and he later resigned from NASA without flying.

NASA and the USAF had big plans to launch the shuttle on north-south polar orbital flights from the new "Slick Six" launch facility at Vandenberg AFB in California. The first flight was STS-62A and many considered it risky, but anyway the flights were canceled after the Challenger accident and several of the crew flew on later shuttle flights.

But US Air Force Secretary, Pete Aldrich, and Manned Spaceflight Engineer, John Waterson, were left without a flight and never flew in space (I have an extra just like this 62A crew signed cover if anyone is interested)