autopens

Autopens

Autopens are signatures that can be commonly be mistaken as real autographs. Autopens are signautres made by a machine using a template of an actual autograph. There are several ways to determine if the signature is real or an autopen. Some characteristics of autopens include a slightly shaky look to them, they are always consistant (basically, there is no pressure differences along the signature and the width is always the same). Usually, autopens are always going to be identical but some astronauts have several different templates which results in several slighty different autopen signatures. The most common autopens out there are those of the more famous early astronauts such as Neil Armstrong but the shuttle astronauts have also used it quite frequently. A common place to find shuttle astronaut autopens is on crew photos, NASA makes photos of entire shuttle crews with an autopen of each member.

The autopen device is strictly an American astronaut item. The only Internationl astronauts and Russian cosmonauts to use them are ones who have trained and flown with American astronauts (a few examples are below).

These are all the autopens I have in my collection, there are many more known autopens out there.