posted 10-26-2013 08:29 AM               

Space Cover #237: Skylab Prime Recovery Ships

For (perhaps) the final installment in our Skylab tribute series, this week will be devoted to the US Navy prime recovery ships that recovered the Skylab-1 (SL-2), Skylab-2 (SL-3), and Skylab-3 (SL-4) spacecraft and crews.

Only two US Navy aircraft carriers served as primary recovery ships in the Pacific Ocean recovery area for the three manned Skylab missions. And few other ships served as Seconday Recovery Ships. The USS Ticonderoga recovered the SL-2 crew on June 22, 1973, while the USS New Orleans recovered the SL-3 crew on September 25, 1973 and then recovered the SL-4 crew on February 8, 1974. Then on July 24, 1975, for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the US New Orleans was again the prime recovery ship and carried out the 31st and final US Navy ocean recovery of a manned spacecraft and crew in the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab Programs.

Covers from the three Skylab Prime Recovery Ships for all three recoveries are in good supply. Shown above are crew signed covers for all three Skylab recoveries with Morris Beck-supplied USN rubber stamp cachets.

The top cover is a popular Beck printed cacheted cover for the SL-3 recovery and is autographed by Rear Admiral Richard A. Gordon, the head of Skylab Manned Space Operations. The middle cover is an unusual double canceled cover for SL-3, first canceled at KSC for the SL-3 launch, then sent to the USS New Orleans and canceled and cacheted for the SL-3 recovery. The final cover is autographed by the SL-4 crew and was canceled at Ellington AFB, TX on the occasion of the SL-4 crew's triumphant return to Houston at the conclusion of both their 84-day mission and the Skylab Program. Then perhaps as a final closing event in the highly successful Skylab manned space station Program, recovery ship USS New Orleans returned to port on February 20, 1974.

Perhaps soon we'll present another SCOTW feature on Skylab First Day Covers (FDCs) and also maybe a few covers pertaining to the final day in orbit of the Skylab Orbital Workshop.

posted 10-26-2013 05:40 PM               

The second cover pictured above is a difficult to find Reuben Ramkissoon primary recovery ship cover for Skylab 3 and PRS USS New Orleans. The cover also has a rubber stamped cachet for the SL-3 mission. This large number 10 PRS cover is missing from most primary recovery ship collections.

In this pair, the top cover has a rubber stamped cachet on the USS New Orleans cover for the Skylab 4 mission recovery similar to Bob's cover at the top of this page, but the cover surprisingly also has an orange patch of material taken from the floatation collar of the UDT lily pad, that was attached to the SL-4 spacecraft so the crew could exit it. The patch has been added to the cover and then rubber stamped with application of the magenta cachet, and hand canceled as part of the cover. The addition of the orange patch from the floatation collar involved in the crew's recovery as part of the cover, makes this a very desirable PRS cover to add to a recovery ship collection.