This poster commemorates the 13th Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE). The Congress took place September 12-19, 1997 in San José, Costa Rica. Bearing the authentic signatures of fifty of the participating astronauts from fifteen nations, it is part of a series of limited collector's edition posters that have been produced and signed at each ASE Congress since the Association was founded in 1985. Sixty-three posters were signed at the 13th Congress.

The poster has three headings, the main headings in English at the top, with the Russian displayed at the bottom. Around the periphery are printed translations of “Association of Space Explorers” in the native languages of all individuals who have flown in space. Clockwise, from upper left with English at the top, they include Romanian, Dutch, Japanese, Czech, Arabic, Polish, Spanish, Hungarian, Kazakh, Vietnamese, Italian, Bulgarian, Afghan, Hindi, Mongolian, German and French. The background is taken from NASA archive photo # 83 HC 213 which has been used for each set of posters in the series.

The central image of the poster represents the Congress theme “Space Technology for Sustainable Development.” The image shows the Shuttle/Mir stack superimposed over a picture of Costa Rica taken from space, representing international cooperation and the use of space technology in the pursuit of sustainable development. The image illustrates the conviction of ASE members that space technologies can facilitate the resolution of the many environmental challenges we face on Earth.

Signature Key

Costa Rica

*Franklin Chang-Díaz (Host)

United States

Loren Acton, Joseph Allen, *John-David Bartoe, Karol Bobko, Scott Carpenter, Sam Durrance, John Fabian, Owen Garriott, *Frederick Gregory, Henry Hartsfield, Jr., Byron Lichtenberg, Jon McBride, Ron Parise, Don Peterson, Ken Reightler, Jr., Richard Richards, *Mario Runco, Jr., Robert Springer, Charles Walker

(* US federal employee, signature not included on Collector's Edition Poster)

Russia

Viktor Afanasyev, Alexander Balandin, Anatoli Berezovoi, Viktor Gorbatko, Alexander Ivanchenkov, Alexei Leonov, Vladimir Lyakhov, Oleg Makarov, Gennadi Manakov, Andrian Nikolaev, Alexander Poleshchuk, Viktor Savinykh, Vladimir Shatalov, Vladimir Solovyov, Gennadi Strekalov, Vladimir Vasyutin

International

Alexander Alexandrov (Bulgaria), Reinhold Ewald (Germany), Mohammed Faris (Syria), Bertalan Farkas (Hungary), Dirk Frimout (Belgium), Miroslaw Hermaszewski (Poland), Ulf Merbold (Germany), Dumitru Prunariu (Romania), Franz Viehbock (Austria)

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