posted 08-26-2012 06:15 AM               

Space Cover #176: Rest In Peace, Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012

Rest in Peace, Neil. We will miss you.

• X-1B Test Pilot
  
• X-15 Test Pilot
  
• Commander, Gemini VIII
  
• LLRV Test Pilot
  
• Commander, Apollo 11
  
• The First Person to Walk on the Moon

posted 08-28-2012 03:50 PM               

Note also the hand cancels on the sheet of stamps for the launch, Moon landing, and splashdown using key Apollo 11 mission dates, with the cancels also playing off the names of the three Apollo 11 crew members. Dr. E. M. Brown of Elgin, IL, made this unique cover for the Apollo 11 flight and was able to have it signed by the crew.

This unusual desirable cover is shown with appreciation to Woody Witt. Readers who have a favorite Neil Armstrong related, Apollo 11 or other Neil Armstrong cover are welcome to post a scan of their special cover on this thread as well!

posted 08-31-2012 12:55 PM               

I used my stash of Shepard stamps for the Cincy cancels and the Mission to Mercury stamps for the Wapak cancels. All I had was three blocks.

When a date is announced for the Washington service, I will dash some off to there. I have a small supply of unserviced Apollo 11 cachets. I just need to decide on franking!

posted 09-02-2012 05:57 AM               

Armstrong's family, together with invited guests including the first moonwalker's fellow astronauts and the leadership of NASA, were gathering for a private memorial service in Cincinnati. The ceremony at the Camargo Club, a private golf course, was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT).

According to NASA, planning is underway for a national service to be held in Washington, D.C. sometime in the next two weeks.

posted 09-03-2012 10:43 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by ChrisCalle:
Does anyone know of any postal cancellations planned for the Armstrong memorial or the JFK speech?

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posted 09-04-2012 05:18 PM               

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other dignitaries will attend a public memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral to honor the life and career of astronaut Neil Armstrong on Thursday, Sept. 13.

posted 09-09-2012 09:54 AM               

The Post Office which has the jurisdiction of the Washington National Cathedral is the post office at Wisconsin Avenue:

U.S. Post Office
4005 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C., 20016
Tel: (202) 842-3332

posted 09-11-2012 10:30 AM               

Anyway, I have not gotten my Cincy or Wapak postmarks back from the date of the Cincy service. Called BOTH post offices just now. At Cincy, the clerk in charge of such things had been gone and nobody else will touch his stuff. At Wapak, the lady said "we had a bunch of them" and they were finally getting them all back to the senders. So if you haven't gotten yours back, I thought I'd tell you what I know and maybe yours are on their way back too.

Covers from the ship handling the burial at sea for Armstrong will be a super-cool item, to be sure. Would be nice to know who handled/will be handling those duties! Through all my space collecting years, I "never" got a bad response from the Navy when I asked for something unusual.

posted 09-14-2012 09:02 AM               

As America pays tribute to Neil Armstrong in a memorial service Thursday at the National Cathedral in Washington, I would like to reflect on the life and legacy of this great space exploration pioneer.

The memorial service, I note, falls one day after the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's "Moon speech" at Rice University in Houston, a speech that fired the nation's imagination and energies to undertake "the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked." I was deeply saddened to learn of Neil's passing--my good friend and Apollo 11 crewmate along with Michael Collins. It never occurred to me that our mission commander might be the first of us to pass.

Thinking about Neil, I was reminded of the statement attributed to Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century, when he attempted to explain how he was able to develop a powerful understanding of physics and mathematics. "If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."

For the Apollo Program, Neil was that giant. He was the consummate test pilot and astronaut whose skills were demonstrated repeatedly throughout his career, whether expanding the envelope of the X-15 space plane to the very edge of space (207,500 feet)at nearly 4,000 mph; gaining control of his spinning spacecraft during Gemini 8 in 1966 and guiding it safely back to Earth; ejecting at the last possible moment before the Lunar Lander Training Vehicle crashed, then quietly returning to his office to analyze the cause of the malfunction and file a mishap report; or, most especially, skillfully guiding the Apollo 11 Lunar Module "Eagle" to a safe landing in a boulder strewn lunar expanse.

I still vividly recall standing with Neil on the barren, desolate, yet beautiful surface of the Moon, looking at the small, brilliant blue planet Earth, suspended in the blackness of space, while Mike orbited above us awaiting our return, as virtually the entire world took that journey with us.

Neil did not see Apollo 11 as an ending--rather he regarded the Moon landing as a first small step for humankind into the cosmos. If Neil was an extraordinary engineer, astronaut and leader, he was also soft spoken and reserved, preferring to advocate quietly for space exploration from behind the scenes. He didn't seek fame or praise for the work that he knew countless others had done to make the Moon landing possible.

The last time Neil and I met at the White House, which we did periodically to boost the space policy with a succession of Presidents, we talked about where the next step into the future should lie: to the Moon or Mars. Neil said, "No!" He thought we had much to learn from the Moon before moving on to other challenges. But in the end, while we differed at times on where next to go and how best to get there, we always shared a common belief that America must lead in space.

As we contemplate his passing, let us also pause to remember those who gave their lives in pursuit of achieving the dream of space exploration: the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia. We can honor them all, and the President who first set the Moon landing challenge before the nation, by renewing our dedication to space exploration --and resolving to pursue it with the same determination and enduring commitment to excellence personified by Neil Armstrong.

posted 09-27-2012 10:05 PM               

My original covers I sent to Cincinnati are lost. They are 6 3/4" envelopes, 100% cotton fibre (rag content) envelopes with Artmaster watermark. I have a single of the Apollo 11 anniversary stamp on it, with the selvege from the sheet with the Armstrong quote attached to it and postmarked first day of issue. Then, in the large, open white space to the left and above of that, I put a Forever Alan Shepard stamp on them and sent them to Cincinnati for postmarks for the Armstrong service.

I know Cincinnati got them. I talked to the clerk there who had them in his hand and was going to postmark them and return them to me in my return envelope. But all I got back was four or five photographs of some lady and her daughter (that I do not know) with love notes on the back.

I sent those back to the same Cincinnati PO with the original letter and additional notes and five more, different covers. I just got those five covers back with lousy red ink four-bar postmarks. I can read the date, but Cincinnati is totally lost on the stamps and those pictures back that I specifically said I did not want back. But not the original covers. The original covers are in a clear USPS cellophane package I save and reuse from stamp purchases along with the heavy cardboard piece.