posted 04-19-2022 06:27 PM               

Space Cover 647: Apollo 16 at 50

Fifty years ago today, the Apollo 16 mission was underway, landing John Young and Charlie Duke on the Moon while Ken Mattingly orbited above. I couldn’t find just one favorite cover to show for Apollo 16 this week. So, in the spirit of Ken Havekotte (although my collection pales in comparison to Ken's) here is a montage of my faves!

Top row (L-R): KSC 4/16/72 launch Insurance-Type Cover bought from Ken Havekotte 10-15 years ago by my wife as a Christmas present for me (yep, GREAT wife!). KSC 4/16/72 launch Bendix Cachet (the Bendix’s are my favorite series of cachets). And Houston 4/16/72 launch MSCSC Cachet autographed by the crew, bought from a gentleman who worked at the JSC Arc Jet Facility at the time.

Middle Row (L-R): KSC 4/20/72 moon landing SpaceCraft Cachet autographed by the cachet designer Carl Swanson. Houston 4/20/72 moon landing on an Apollo 16 lunar descent map cachet showing the landing site, Descartes. KSC 4/25/72 with cachet depicting Mattingly’s deep space EVA to retrieve film from the Apollo Service Module on the way back from the Moon.

Bottom Row (L-R): USS Ticonderoga 4/27/72 recovery Beck Cachet B880. And USS Ticonderoga 4/27/72 recovery Captain’s Cover.

Any of you have any favorite Apollo 16 covers that you’d like to post? Please do!

posted 04-22-2022 06:08 AM               

It was a great mission and certainly a lot of excellent covers were produced for it, including those you have shown.

I had just started collecting at that time, but did manage to acquire a number of Apollo 16 covers, including some more unusual ones, including covers with the Apollo 16 KSC ONC for Saturn V rollback and the second rollout. Also three covers relating to the PRS USS Ticonderoga: its arrival at Pearl Harbor prior to its deployment to the recovery area; its departure to the recovery area; and its "Welcome back" to Pearl Harbor with the spacecraft and crew, all with the PRS rubber stamp cachet. Also a cover from Hickham AFB Sta., Honolulu, HI for the crew's welcome there.

posted 04-25-2022 09:18 AM               

My telephoto camera caught the entire launch sequence and people all started leaving, but I had no transportation. About 100 yards away I saw the two German dealers heading toward their car and I ran over to see if I could hitch a ride back. As I got there one of the two was closing a briefcase and I glimpsed at hundreds of VIP cards inside. But I didn't want to screw up my only possible ride and didn't say anything.

In May, 1973, NASA suspended the issuance of VIP cards due to "duplicated cards created by overseas dealers" as I wrote on my exhibit page at the time. I didn't think about making a comparison of cards until the 1980 as I had noticed some minor anomaly between the cards that I'd received in person and a few that I'd obtained afterwards. So I decided to hold both, the ones that I knew were valid and a few unaddressed ones that looked suspicious, under a UV light. I found that those I suspected, from not only Apollo 16, but through the second Skylab mission all reflected a dull yellow color while the legitimate Apollo 16 cards that I had, reflected a bright white.

I talked with Leo Malz, a collector, dealer and lawyer, who told me that if I was going to report my filings, I should call them "Suspect" VIP Cards. I also went back to the Apollo 15 and earlier VIP cards and did not locate any other "suspect" cards.

This attachment shows my exhibit page with a card that I mailed to myself, with a closed globe machine cancel, alongside one of the suspect cards which has an Open Globe cancel applied at the Visitor Information Center.

Also, I'm showing a PRS Ticonderoga cover with a machine cancel. The ship's hand cancelling devices were left at Pearl Harbor along with the ship's postal clerks. The machine cancelling device was left on board the ship.

Someone on board covered an existing small cachet with a blue penned square and them applied an Apollo 16 decal over it. This is the only machine cancelled cover I have ever run across.

posted 04-25-2022 10:35 AM               

One my favourite Apollo 16 covers contains an amusing drawing.

posted 05-23-2022 08:32 PM               

My thanks to Dennis for starting this topic conversation of Apollo 16's 50th anniversary a month ago during the actual flight in April. I had not forgotten about the golden anniversary of man's fifth lunar landing mission, but just got too busy in doing another cover display montage in time for that same celebration month.

As for Ray in his above posting, I just can't recall meeting the German space cover dealers that he referred to during the actual Apollo 16 launch week in 1972. I was a high schooler and not that well-connected to the space cover scene until a few years later. I wasn't even at the press site for Apollo 16, but it looks like Ray might had been thinking about our first meeting and get together for either Skylab 3 in July 1973 or Apollo-Soyuz in July 1975.

The cachet designs below include a pre-launch crew signed ONC, several insurance covers, a signed VIP launch card, a MSCSC lunar map cover, one of the popular Orbit Covers for launch, a couple of KSCPS-issued covers, more official emblem crew-type signed covers, a Colorano "silk" cachet for lunar liftoff, Manned Spaceflight Covers for trans-earth injection, a CKM/Solar Covers for liftoff, one of the popular Space Voyage Covers by Robert Rank when the SIVB third stage rocket crashed into the lunar surface for moonquake studies, a couple of worldwide tracking station covers, and a rare Cygnus Riser Cover for an aborted CSM-Casper circulative engine burn on April 20 that delayed the moon landing a little, plus hundreds more that can't be shown in this confined area.

posted 05-25-2022 09:51 AM               

As a crew signed cover collector, I know how hard it was to get Apollo 16 crew signed covers. Of the Apollo 7 through 17 crews, I'd consider Apollos 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 16 the most difficult to obtain.

But seeing your Apollo 16 crew signed VIP card reminded me of my failed quest of years ago of trying to find crew signed VIP cards for those eleven Apollo flights. It was an unrealistic quest for me and after finding several moved on to easier collecting pursuits.

I do wonder, Ken, how close you or any collector may have come to acquiring crew signed VIP cards for Apollos 7 through 17? Just finding crew signed flight covers for those eleven flights would be hard enough.

posted 05-25-2022 12:03 PM               

When considering the most difficult Apollo crew signed covers, I agree with Bob 100%, and to put them in order of the most difficult to acquire, here is my take on it:
First choice would be Apollo 8, second would be Apollo 11 even though we're seeing many crew insurance covers now on the market, third would be a tie in my opinion between Apollo 10 and 7, next would be Apollo 16 and perhaps Apollo 13 with Swigert, Apollo 9 and 14, and perhaps ending up with Apollo 17 and 15 in that order, or close to it. Apollo 17 was not that difficult, though, during the 1970's/80's, however, with Schmitt not signing that often these days, it's getting more tough for the last lunar landing crew with Schmitt mostly a non-signer as the only surviving crewman.