posted 06-02-2024 12:46 PM               

Space Cover 756: Shenzhou 1 Flown Cover

With China now having flown 18 Shenzhou missions, seven of which have been to their Tiangong space station, let's take a look back at the beginning of their human space flight program!

Above is a cover flown onboard the uncrewed Shenzhou 1 test flight in 1999. Shenzhou 1 was launched on November 19, 1999 UTC (November 20 in Beijing). In fourteen orbits, this flight tested eight of the thirteen subsystems that would fly on the crewed Shenzhou vehicle, landing in Mongolia the next day. Onboard were 3191 of these covers, and mine above is number 3087. I understand that the triangular postmark towards the bottom, showing the Shenzhou under a parachute is a notation that this cover was flown.

Typed on a sheet enclosed in the cover is the following:

Beijing Notary Public Office of the People's Republic of China (99) Beijing Certificate No Jing Zheng Jing Zi 47738.

According to the application of China Philatelic Corporation assigned Mr. Xiong Ling and Mrs. Qiulian Wei, another notary, to notarize the company's use of the first Chinese Spacecraft Shenzhou is the name of the spacecraft, the country's manned space project to carry the commemorative envelope. From September 9th to November 14th, 1999, under our on-site supervision, 3,191 commemorative seals were completed on the lower right corner of the envelope, combined with the notary certificate and stamped with the seal of the Beijing Notary Public Office.  This commemorative envelope is numbered for No. 3087, packaged into the spacecraft and the whole process of the spacecraft being launched, recovered, and uncapped.

This is to certify that the commemorative seal onboard the above-mentioned spacecraft was sealed in the China Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 9, 1999, and put into the return cabin of the first spacecraft Shenzhou, China's manned space project. The Shenzhou test spacecraft was placed on the carrier rocket, Long March II F, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China at 6:30 AM on November 20, 1999.  After testing, the Shenzhou test spacecraft was launched at 3:41 AM on November 21, 1999.  It was recovered and landed on the central part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Development and Test Center on November 23, 1999, to open the capsule, commemorative seal of the spacecraft was intact.

Additionally, the back of the cover has the following notation:

posted 06-03-2024 10:15 AM               

While not a Shenzhou 1 cover nor flown, this is a cover for the ninth Shenzhou flight, Shenzhou 9 in 2012. It was the fourth manned Chinese flight and is autographed by the three crew members: Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang. Liu Yang became the first Chinese woman to fly in space on this flight.

Shenzhou 9 was a 13-day flight using the Tiangong 1 space station. The cover's cachet and stamp picture both the Shenzhou spacecraft and the small Tiangong space station.

The cover came from a source in Red China that I believe is not active anymore. For a time it was an excellent source for Chinese space material, including flown covers.

Chinese space covers and Taikonaut autographs are a worthwhile collecting topic - certainly extremely popular in Red China - but probably not overly popular in the West.