posted 01-10-2010 09:18 AM               

Space Cover #39: V-2 Test Flight, Made in the USA

The Space Cover of the Week this week was flown on V-2 rocket number 23 at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, April 8, 1947, recovered from the desert test area and then mailed via registered mail to a space cover collector in Glendale, Long Island, New York.

The von Braun and U.S. Army team assembled V-2 rocket achieved a true space altitude of 64 miles apogee and traveled a distance of 19 miles before crashing back into the desert at White Sands at the termination of the test. The disparity in the cancellation date on the back of the registered mail cover and the Army's launch date is due to difficulty in locating the rocket after the test.

While the cover's condition is not pristine, it is a very rare V-2 rocket flown cover from the beginning of the U. S. space program. The magenta White Sands Proving Ground, Las Cruces, New Mexico, corner card is also unusual for an early rocket test cover, and commands our attention to stop and take a closer look at the cover.

A previous space cover collector has splayed the cover to show both the registered mail cancels on the front of the cover as well as the double ring Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Brooklyn, New York, cancels showing where the flown cover was mailed after the rocket test and recovery to its end recipient. In addition to U.S. airmail postage, the cover also has the two singles of the 1947 Las Cruces, V-2, New Mexico overprints in both red and blue, Ellington-Zwisler #14A1a and #14A2a, postally marked and tied to the cover with a light green boxed V-2 postal marking as was used for this.

Many space cover collectors shun these large number 10 sized covers as being too large and difficult to mount for an exhibit. A large cover is often a challenge to one's arrangement in a competitively evaluated exhibit. But, for a cover flown on a V-2 rocket by the von Braun rocket team and U.S. Army in 1947, possibly an exception could be made to somehow fit it in.

posted 01-10-2010 09:53 AM               

I'm currently working on a project that involves an artifact removed from a V-2 rocket that was flown at White Sands in 1946. The artifact is a lawfully obtained section of metal from one of the tail fins.

posted 02-11-2023 07:36 AM               

It's a fascinating cover find addressed to a well-known New York area rocket mail collector back in the day. While I do see a V-2 rubber stamp strike over the two single overprint labels along with it being a registered letter, do we have any further information about it being carried/flown aboard V-2 rocket flight #23 on April 8, 1947? Perhaps there had been a letter inside.

The reason to ask is that I now have similar V-2 rubber stamps applied on covers using the same-type vignettes, signed by leading V-2 rocket pioneers while at WSPG/Ft. Bliss, and with a type-written notation "Per V-2 Rocket." But those are #10 sized airmail government-military envelopes that were later determined not to be flown of the four-known such covers by the War Department ordnance division on the rocket base. They had also been addressed to the same rocket mail collector in Glendale/Long Island, New York.

posted 05-09-2023 04:38 PM               

Concerning this post of flown V-2 rocket mail, it's confirmed that there had been two (2) flown covers on V-2 Flight No. 48 reaching space at 79 miles high on Feb. 17, 1949, from White Sands Proving Ground at Las Cruces, New Mexico.

After months of research work on this project, we now have copies of official Army and national museum letters attesting to their official flown status. As time permits, I'll post some of those letters and support documentation here. The two V-2
covers referred to were designated as the "first lot officially recovered from a V-2 rocket after flight" by recovery officer Army Captain Paul Davidson of WSPG's Ordnance Division.

Does this statement possibly mean that V-2 Flight #48 were the only two covers to actually fly aboard a V-2 rocket vehicle that had been recovered? It's believed that at least 3 to 4 prior rocket mail covers might had been flown at White Sands on V-2's, however, do any of those covers truly have supporting claim documentation?

posted 05-10-2023 07:32 AM               

White Sands V-2 * No. 12 * 10.10.1946

The 12th V-2 rocket captured by the United States was launched on 10.10.1946 from the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. It reached a height of 173.8 km. Some very few – perhaps only 2 or 3 – covers of the New York collector Robert Schoendorf were also on board during the flight. They had been attached to the outer surface of the rocket and were destroyed when the rocket head drilled into the ground on landing.

White Sands V-2 * No. 22 * 01.04.1947

The 22nd V-2 captured by the United States took off from Launch Ramp 33 at the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, on 01.04.1947. The rocket reached a height of 129.2 km.

M.D. Silkiner, the Administrative Assistant of the War Department, Ordnance Department, White Sands Proving Ground, sent Robert Schoendorf two flown covers back in an envelope together with an accompanying letter on 02.04.1947. They were burned and damaged on the hard landing. Schoendorf had made vignettes for these covers. Essays of William Sykora's WS-01V vignettes bear the imprint "V-2 Las Cruces, N.M. 1947". Such vignettes already existed for rocket mail transport in 1946.

Official envelopes of the War Department, Ordnance Department, White Sands Proving Ground, were not flown – even if they carry both vignett es and the rocket cancellati on and are autographed by Wernher von Braun.

posted 05-10-2023 08:28 AM               

Since we do have letters of prior flown V-2 covers from White Sands, do we have copies of such letters and can they be posted here? Not the actual covers themselves, Walter, of which I am aware of, but any supporting letters and/or solid provenances for my own research files.

It's still somewhat of a mystery to me that Army Capt. Paul Davidson of the test firing range's ordnance department referred to his two flown covers aboard V-2 #48 (one source reports the flight as #45); "This cover was among the first lot officially recovered from a V-2 rocket after flight." Surely he must have known, or at least heard of, those early rocket mail collectors referred to, but maybe not! I don't recall those earlier flown covers having been posted on the same day of their designated rocket launch that took place, and as you pointed out, some were "crashed covers" and destroyed. The two by Davidson did have a nice and clean postmark on Feb. 17, 1949 at "Las Cruces, Unit 1, N. Mex.," same day as the actual flight reaching space at 79 miles high.

UPDATE: Thanks so much Walter and my apologies for asking again for providing that information and photo-scans. On one of the depicted burned envelopes on the front surface at top left, it does clearly imply by a typewritten sentence, "Carried by V-2 rocket --- on April 1, 1947," but unfortunately, I do not see a postmark on it
(was it posted on back of the envelope)?

I do have two of the War Dept. #10 legal size envelopes posted from Las Cruces in 1946/47, signed by von Braun and Stuhlinger, with added rocket vignettes along with a green rubber stamped "V-2" box, also, with typed-on letters "PER V-2 ROCKET." Dr. Stuhlinger also added in his own hand, "V-2 Rocket Mail." It's so unfortunate that the government envelopes were not flown, and the two that I have, were also addressed to Robert Schoendorf of New York.