posted 01-21-2018 04:46 AM               

Space Cover #451: Scrubbed launches

Astrophilatelists around the world collect covers for key space events as launches, dockings, insertions in orbits, landings etc.

Furthermore, Astrophilately often offer the chance to collect other kind of covers as interesting as previous ones described but usually overlooked by collectors.

When nominal launches are succeeded, the first cover that appears in our collections for a specific mission is the launch cover with correct date and place.

However, many missions were preceded of scrubbed launch dates (for several reasons) just with appreciation in specialized space media. And Astrophilately, as specialized space work, reflects many of these "shadow" dates with covers and/or postcards bringing to the light these occults dates and showing how difficult and complex a launch is.

The postcard above shown is dated April 10, 1981 for the scrubbed launch of STS-1 which all know occurred two days later, on April 12.

There are many, many other space missions with scrubbed dates (some examples are shown below). In fact, I am wondering if "all" launches had a scrub date.

Please, you are invited to share with others your covers with these precious and maybe rare scrubbed dates.

posted 01-22-2018 04:07 AM               

Similar in some ways to STS-35, along with scrubbed attempts, the mission also required a rollback, a reassigned crew to fly aboard another Orbiter, and switching around a crewman.

Prior 51-E emblem cachet covers had already been printed by the time technical problems with Challenger's TDRS satellite cargo were becoming a major concern.

posted 01-22-2018 04:37 PM               

This post was created with a double intention:

1. Share with others space covers with quotation "scrub or scrubbed". Please, do not be shy and show your scrubbed covers.

2. Try to categorize, or differentiate at least, the words for launches: delayed, postponed, aborted, scrubbed...

posted 01-22-2018 07:36 PM               

To answer your second question about the 62A crew announcement, Hart, I am not aware of any prepared covers for it.

posted 01-23-2018 02:45 PM               

Concerning the STS-62A crew selection, though, maybe Manned Spaceflight Covers, Rand, or Space City Cover Society may had produced covers for the Crippen/62A crew since they were all located near the JSC/Houston area where crew announcements were made public by NASA.

posted 09-18-2022 12:22 PM               

Inside the cachet area was added by typewriter, "Preparatory Day for Glenn Flight." Inside the envelope cover was a small clip of paper with a hand-written notation of "Abort Weather Scrub for Launch." Time magazine in their Feb. 23, 1962, issue indicated that Glenn's launch had been postponed 10 times in 9 weeks since mid-December 1961. Veteran space reporter Mary Bubb used that same figure in one of her press articles while covering MA-6 from Press Site #2 that same week. Is this perhaps one of only known space covers for a scrub launch attempt before Glenn flew on Feb. 20th?

I've also included a few more "Scrub" covers from perhaps the two most well-known manned space shot scrubbed mission attempts; Gemini VI (GT-6) on Oct. 25, 1965, with a Sokalsky cachet from TD Productions in Brooklyn, NY, along with a "hjm" cachet cover of that same Gemini mission with Schirra and Stafford on Dec. 12, 1965. Note that at the bottom of the cover states, "Commemorating A(n) United States Space Achievement," which unfortunately, was a bad day for NASA and not a space accomplishment as originally hoped for.

posted 09-19-2022 03:18 PM               

Excellent, excellent and excellent scrubbed covers shown. All of them of high interest for me.

By the way, I have always wondered which is the difference between:

• scrubbed launch covers
  
• postponed launch covers
  
• delayed launch covers

Maybe all is the same in common language or maybe they are some difference in astronautics field (technical language), or just for each of us it has a different meaning.

posted 09-19-2022 08:05 PM               

Normally a Project Mercury-Atlas countdown had began at T-390 minutes (less than 7 hours) before a planned liftoff. This is usually the period that a scrub could be called, but in some cases, it might be considered a "delay" if early in the count. Usually a "postponement" could by called by the launch team if there had been a longer delay involving more time, such as a few days or more. But those three terms have been used interchangeably, as Robert pointed out, and it seems to me that a "delay" and/or "postponement" could both apply in some circumstances almost equally of holding a launch back.

During MA-6 in 1962, there was a 2-part countdown process with MA-6/109D. Pre-count checks came first in checking out the primary spacecraft systems, followed by a 17.5 hour hold for pyrotechnic evaluations, electrical connections, and peroxide system servicing at the pad. The next procedure in the count proceeds to the T-13 minute mark, however, Glenn was at the pad about 4.5 hours before liftoff time as the count was in a built-in hold for astronaut spacecraft insertion along with another planned built-in hold time.

In Feb. 1962, MA-6 was rescheduled to Feb. 13 and then to Feb. 14. Other attempts were initially made on Feb. 15 and 16, but were "cancelled" each time due to adverse weather conditions. Finally, two days later on the 18th when weather started to improve over the Cape skies, another attempt was made on the 20th and history had been made.

posted 01-03-2024 12:27 PM               

I believe a delay is when a countdown is literally delayed - that is, the countdown time is held for whatever reason, and the countdown later continues from that point.

A postponement is when a delay extends to the point whereby the countdown has to be rolled backwards such that when the countdown resumes it is at an earlier time than when the delay occurred.