posted 07-19-2009 07:02 AM               

Space Cover #014, Apollo 11 Moon Landing

On this very special day, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonlanding, we have selected a special cover that commemorates this historic event.

This week's space cover has a Kennedy Space Center machine cancel dated July 20, 1969; a 6 cents stamp issued for the Apollo-8 first lunar orbitial mission and the impressive Apollo 11 crew patch/mission emblem cachet.

It's basically a simple cover, with just the three basic elements that every good space cover should have; nice cachet; proper cancel and appropiate stamp. As such, it serves as a signicant and handsome souvenir of man's greatest space achievement.

This one cover is just one of hundreds and thousands of covers cancelled aroung the world to commemorate man's first lunar landing and walk on the moon.

Unlike almost all of us present day space enthusiasts and collectors, this cover was there at Kennedy Space Center when Apollo 11 was launched and when man first walked on the moon.

posted 07-22-2009 03:25 PM               

"Patch" covers continued and have been produced by various sources (including Ken's Space Coast Cover Service) all through the Shuttle Program and include all the Space Shuttle flights, right up to STS-127 in space at this time.

So it's quite possible and not overly expensive to put together a set of all "patch" covers from Apollo 8 to STS-127: 141 flights and covers.

And with the Space Shuttle Program scheduled to end after seven more flights, a complete set of "patch" covers for all 134 Shuttle flights/launches at the end of the program would be a very significant and impressive achievement.

posted 07-22-2009 07:05 PM               

As Bob pointed out, crew "patch" covers were produced for all US manned/human spaceflights from 1968 (Apollo 8) to present (STS-127).

They were issued by NASA Exchange, Cape Kennedy Medals, Space Shuttle Covers and by my own firm, SpaceCoast Cover Service.

CKM in Cocoa Beach, FL, stopped producing the patch covers in 1984. My company, in association with Space Shuttle Covers in Titusville, FL, took over the space philatelic operations on Florida's Space Coast.

Throughout this period, though, NASA EXC was still producing their own cachet patch covers from their printers in Orlando, FL.

There was a major development or change with the cover operations here after the 51-L/Challenger tragedy in 1986.

Space Shuttle Covers went out of business a few months after Challenger went down. A few months after that, my firm was able to purchase of what remained from Space Shuttle Covers.

Starting with STS-26 in 1988, SCCS was the sole primary producer of shuttle patch cachet covers for Spaceport USA (now the KSCVC), but NASA EXC still had their own patch covers issued in their "on-base" employee gift shops at Kennedy Space Center.

After a few short years when the shuttle fleet was back in service, SCCS contracted with NASA EXC to produce their patch covers from 1993 to present.

As Bob said, "patch" covers for every human spaceflight launch from Apollo 8 to present are available, but are extremely limited in complete sets.