posted 09-07-2009 12:50 AM               

Space Cover #21, 40th Anniversary of First Men on the Moon

On July 16, 1969 as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were Suiting Up for thier Mission to the Moon, my father Paul Calle was using pen and ink to capture those moments on paper.  As the only artist allowed access to the crew on that morning, he had sketched the three astronauts along with Deke Slayton and Bill Anders during their traditional pre-launch breakfast and during their launch preparation in the the Suiting Up room.  In several dozen sketches he captured their movements and expressions and documented the activities of these three men before they were launched into history.

For the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing I decided to produce a series of eleven Event Covers utilizing some of these Apollo 11 pre-launch sketches and other images of the First Step on the Moon to tell the story of the events of July 16 and the Moon Landing on July 20th.  This cover is a montage of images- President John F Kennedy who challenged the Nation to Land a Man on the Moon before the decade was out, astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin plantiung the flag of the United States on the Moon, and President Nixon making what can be said was the most historic telephone call in history speaking to the astronauts on the surface of another planet.  Nixon said, " Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world.  It inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth.  For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people of this Earth are truly one."

I sent to Kennedy Space Center to have them apply the "killer bar" cancel on July 20, 2009. 

This cover utilizes the 10c 1969 First Man on the Moon stamp designed by my father, the 1994 29c stamp jointly designed by my father and me, and an 18c Robert McCall designed Exploring the Moon stamp . For other covers in the series in edition to the KSC killer bar cance I sent envelopes to the Armstrong museum in Wapakonets, Oh, to KSC for their event cancels of July 16, 2009 and July 20, 2009, and the event cancel for the West Poiint Buzz Aldrin Station.