posted 03-22-2020 05:08 PM               

Space Cover #555: BIOS-2 Recovery Cover

This week's Space Cover of the Week features a very unusual and probably little-known recovery ship cover.

In 1961, NASA decided to study the effects of weightlessness and radiation on living matter. This was the beginning of the space program and very little was known of what these effects would be so NASA started the BIOS program. BIOS stood for Biological Investigations of Outer Space.

The reentry capsule would include contain 38 separate parcels containing freshly drawn human blood, grasshopper nerve fiber, mold, bacteria, barley seed, sea urchin eggs and giant single-cell amoebae. There was also a device to capture space dust to help determine if this would pose a problem to orbiting satellites.

BIOS-1 was launched on November 15, 1961 on top of an Argo D-8 rocket from the Pacific Missile Range at Point Arguello California. The rocket broke apart after about a minute into the flight.

An identical spare rocket and capsule were quickly readied for launch. BIOS-2 was launched on November 18, 1961. BIOS-2 went off course and the capsule could not be recovered.

To recover the capsule and valuable cargo the Commander of the US First Fleet deployed four ships to the recovery zone. USS Pine Island was the command ship and designated the prime recovery ship. Also assisting were USS Benner, USS Everett F. Larson and USNS Range Tracker which would also provide tracking duties for the launch.

The above pictured cover is from the prime recovery ship USS Pine Island and postmarked for the recovery. I have also included the stuffer card which has been annotated by what I would assume is a crew member in sending it to a friend and fellow collector.

Both the cover and card have been professionally printed with a very nice and specific cachet. This would lead one to assume that many of these covers were printed and probably handed out to the crew. However, in my many years of collecting I have only found two of these USS Pine Island BIOS-2 recovery covers and never a cover from any of the other ships in the recovery force.

Does anyone have any of these covers or any additional information about them?