posted 09-14-2018 11:45 AM               

Space Cover #483: What it Took to be the Best!

From the beginning, Space Craft Covers strove to be different! Typically, any cacheted space cover, and certainly any to be produced in volume, had to be produced before the event. But space exploration was a technical and complex field, full of unknowns, and this was the field Space Craft Covers had to operate in.

Space Craft Covers then would have to match what was happening to be technically accurate, detailed, and artistically pleasing. SCC started with one color cover cachets, but two-color cachets would be used on their third issue (Shepard)in May 1961. The covers became a stardard on their sixth issue (Grissom) in July 1961.

In October 1960, Carl Swanson designed a general purpose cachet for the then upcoming Project Mercury flights. The cachet design was printed on a number of envelopes in a trial run to see how the printer would do.

In a review of this new organization later made in 1988, friend and associate, Charles Vukotich, in his book, "Space Craft Covers, a Monograph and Catalog" identifies these early SCC precursor covers and how many were printed.

I have selected four of the first eight space covers made by Fitzpatrick and Swanson for my Space Cover of the Week for this week, for collectors to see, and I highly recommend adding them to their space cover collection if they do not already have them.

Above: SCC Cover Number 1X1 MR1-A (Mercury Redstone 1-A)

Only 25 of these first SCC covers were made. Vukotich comments that they are hard to find. The original mission, The original 1X1 space cover was a failure and there are no SCC covers representing this failed flight. The successful flight that was rescheduled, 1X1 MR1-A (Mercury Redstone 1-A), was the cover that commemorates the successful flight.

SCC Cover Number 1x2 HAM Space Monkey Flight

SCC space cover for Space Monkey HAM was a space flight prior to the first manned astronaut space flight of Project Mercury. Per Vukotich,these covers also are hard to find and may be a challenge for current collectors to acquire. At one time, the SCC HAM cover was advertised for sale by SCC. The Mercury Redstone 1-A cover never was.

SCC Cover Number 3 Mercury-Shepard Flight

The general purpose SCC cover design for Project Mercury was used for the first Project Mercury ballistic space flight of astronaut Alan Shepard. But new text in red was added underneath the cachet design as follows, "Boy, What a Ride" a comment Shepard had made during his flight, and on the last line also in red text, was added the astronaut's name, Alan B. Shepard, Jr. in small red letters. A second version of the cover eliminated his comment in red during his flight and his name. This revised cover was designated SCC cover 3-b and has no red text.

SCC Cover Number 8 Mercury-Grissom Flight

In his book, Vukotich affirms the general purpose Project Mercury design got some additional use. The wording on the cachet was changed from the Historical Space Conquest" to "Second United States Historical Space Conquest" and the cachet overall was printed in green. Only a total of 30 of these rare covers were printed.

If you don't have all four of these early SCC covers, don't pass them up.

The following is the dedication Chuck Vukotich made to both of the founders of Space Craft Covers:

Joseph R. Fitzpatrick: "A stamp collector who wanted to be a force in philately, a dealer, and produce the best yest remain a nice guy and a stamp collector — and who actually did it!"

Carl Swanson: "The artistic genius who made Space Craft Covers possible."