The Big Joe Atlas postcard pictured, if found, adds a premium cover to a collector's space cover collection. The Big Joe test was an Atlas 10-D booster rocket with the first Project Mercury boilerplate space capsule on a ballistic missile test down the Atlantic Missile Range. The author knows of only one cancelled cover on envelope for this early Project Mercury test flight. For the rest of us, though, a cancelled Big Joe postcard on the launch date may be the best we can do to fill this significant event hole in our space cover collections. Easy to find up to the early 1980s, a Big Joe postcard cancelled on the launch date of September 9, 1959, at Port Canaveral, Florida, now commands a premium price for space cover collectors if they can find one.
This additional Big Joe test postcard is cancelled a day later than the launch postcard shown above. The date, September 10, 1959, at Port Canaveral, Florida, is the correct recovery date for the test's space capsule recovery. The cancellation date on the postcard is based upon the Big Joe space capsule recovery by U.S. Navy destroyer USS Strong, DD-758, and the transfer and arrival of the space capsule via ship and recovery helo to Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, late on September 9, 1959, after local post offices in the Cape Canaveral area had closed.
Space Cover #279: Big Joe, Not Your Average Joe
The group of observers of the Big Joe test were in awe at this "beautiful launch," as described in NASA publication, "This New Ocean." The roar of the pulsating Rocketdyne engines thundered propelling the Atlas 10-D booster rocket with its Project Mercury space capsule away from Launch Complex-14, at 3:19 am, EDT, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The successful launch into the dark early morning sky over the Cape would end 13 minutes after the test's 1,496 mile ballistic flight on its trajectory down the Atlantic Missile Range. The primary objective of the test flight was to evaluate what a Project Mercury astronaut would encounter during an Atlas-D rocket launch, ballistic reentry of his space capsule, and then splashdown in the ocean after his Project Mercury flight into space.
The Big Joe test went well, although the Atlas booster rocket's two outboard engines failed to separate from the centerline rocket engine after reaching its burnout. The added weight to the rocket booster had retarded the rocket's velocity. Consequently, the capsule separated from the booster 2 minutes and 18 seconds later than anticipated from the planned test mission profile. This further resulted in the Big Joe spacecraft splashing down 500 miles short of its anticipated impact area in the Atlantic Ocean. But all things considered, the test still was evaluated as a successful test. It would not have to be repeated.
What is unusual for the Big Joe postcard cancelled on this date and shown at the top of the page is that it was a key early missile test and space capsule test for the Big Joe project and was "the first full-scale flight operation associated with Project Mercury," as stated by Langley Space Task Group engineers and flown in a signed letter by the engineers in the Big Joe space capsule during the test flight on this date. After the successful Big Joe space capsule recovery in the Atlantic Ocean by U.S. Navy destroyer USS Strong, DD-758, the STG engineers retrieved the flown letter from the space capsule and presented the letter to STG Director, Robert Gilruth, to commemorate this historic first step for Project Mercury.
But, why do only postcards commemorate this early key Project Mercury event? Prior to the Internet and the superb search capabilities for space covers this now provides to collectors, there were only a few venues where space cover collectors could even find information and space covers in these early days of space cover collecting. Here in the U.S. there were, of course, stamp shows with a few enterprising space cover dealers, a startup space cover and space memorabilia company called Regency in Beverly Hills, California, and Space Unit member, Seymour Rodman's, "Astro Postal History," a mail order space cover auction held once a year in Chatham, New Jersey. Information for space cover collectors was that sparse.
Usually, the word got out to Space Unit members and other space cover collectors for major space test events, but for the Big Joe Atlas booster rocket test with a Project Mercury boilerplate space capsule, this was not the case. The original July 4, 1959 launch date had been scrubbed until August because the Atlas booster rocket did not check-out. Then the Big Joe test again was put-off until early September by STG engineers who were working on issues with the test's sophisticated instrumentation and telemetry. Because of the continuing delays and test date launch uncertainty, the only covers available for collectors servicing the test event were postcards. These postcards pictured many of the early rockets tested at the Cape and were cancelled at the launch site as enterprising space cover collectors had rushed to service whatever postcards they could find on short notice when they learned the test finally was on.
So, get out those early space cover albums and check to see if you have both of these important dates for Big Joe. Actual test problems considered, the Big Joe test was the first successful test of the Atlas launch vehicle with a Project Mercury boilerplate space capsule. A second Big Joe test that had been planned as insurance if another test was necessary was scrubbed as no longer being required. Its Atlas booster rocket was returned to the program for other use. The flight of Big Joe, indeed, had lived up to its name.
Steve Durst, SU4379
posted 08-24-2014 06:23 AM
advertisement