posted 08-06-2023 10:28 AM               

Space Cover 713: Covers with Appropriate Stamps

A huge variety of US postage stamps have been used on space covers through the years. In the very early days, many covers often had just US flag or standard US commemorative stamps affixed. But soon stamps were issued for space events, such as for Echo 1 and Mercury, so then collectors had appropriate stamps to use on their space covers. Many other space-related stamps were to follow.

But this SCOTW is only about space covers with stamps that relate to or are appropriate to the actual space event they commemorate. Using such appropriate stamps adds to the covers and shown here are eight excellent examples. This SCOTW contributor takes no credit for the eight covers shown, as they all came from and at least most were the thoughtful creation of Ken Havekotte.

We start, above, with one excellent example of stamps being appropriate to the space event they commemorate, but this Teacher-in-Space cover, with teacher- or education-related stamps, is mainly a sad reminder of a tragic event. Below it is a cover commemorating then-Florida US Representative Bill Nelson on his STS-61C flight, with four stamps showing the US Capitol and a Florida bicentennial stamp.

Eileen Collins was the first female commander of a spaceflight and this cover has a stamp commemorating women in the Armed Forces (Collins is a retired USAF Colonel) and also an Amelia Earhart commemorative stamp, with her being a historic woman in aviation.

What do bird stamps have to do with a space event?! Plenty, as a persistent woodpecker took a liking to Space Shuttle insulation that resulted in a rollback of STS-70 for repairs. An add-on rubber stamp explains the delaying event.

The top cover, commemorating John Glenn's return to space on STS-95, has two very appropriate Glenn-related stamps: a Mercury stamp for his first flight in 1962 and a Space Shuttle Priority Mail stamp for his flight 36 years later; a very appropriate combination.

The bottom cover marks STS-31 and its launch to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. Two very appropriate stamps are affixed, one being the 3 cent Mount Palomar Observatory commemorative stamp, and the other showing the HST in space.

The cover above marks the 100th US manned spaceflight in 1995 and bears five US stamps, with each commemorating one of the five US manned space flight programs during that 100-flight span: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle.

This eighth and final cover marks the 50th anniversary of the first rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, which involved a captured German V-2 rocket called Bumper 8. The cachet shows a V-2 launch, with four relating stamps, with two showing V-2 launches in their design.

posted 08-07-2023 06:11 AM               

Two of the special pictorial postmark cancellations above were designed by extraordinaire space graphic artist Joel Katzowitz of Marietta, Georgia. They are easy to spot as most everyone in the space postal world knows of Joel's design contributions.

You did a great job in capturing most of my favorite space-themed stamp cover issues since the 1980's. There are a few others that were done, such as the Space Mirror dedication in 1991, both the Gemini and Apollo astronaut inductions of the 90's, The Apollo/Saturn V Center grand opening, Explorer 1, a few major lunar and planetary flight specials, highlight space anniversaries, along with some space first day cover and stamp issues.

Thanks for bringing up those memories again Bob as it was fun seeing so many together.

posted 08-07-2023 06:41 AM               

I really like the STS-70 "bird stamps" cover and its tie-in with the STS-71 cover. If I remember correctly, the STS-70 flight was slated to be the 100th US manned spaceflight until the woodpeckers decided to snack on the external tank's foam. The decision to roll the stack back to the VAB to repair the damage allowed the STS-71 mission to move up a notch on the schedule and take the 100th US manned spaceflight honor.

posted 08-13-2023 02:00 AM               

However, and in order to open the eyes to all space philatelists, I must say that none of these covers (except if the postage was correct at the moment) could be shown in a competitive philatelic exhibit.

Jury expect to see covers really created to be dispatched by mail and not created by collectors to be kept for collectors. So, the Jury says that these kind of covers have not space for recipient or that these covers were created using philatelic postage, not current postage.

It shows sometimes how far is competition of funny space collecting.

It would be a challenge creating these kind of covers using appropiate stamps together with exact postage rate. More difficult but not impossible.

Furthermore, when stamps and cachet are linked this seems more usual for maximaphily than for astrophilately.

Although maximaphily links postcard, postmark and stamp for matching the image, it is also partially allowed when these three elements are linked by background history, as happens in some of these covers, especially when postmark is illustrated.

posted 09-10-2023 06:23 AM            

It is a 'retrospective' — neither a launch cover nor an anniversary cover, and it isn't a FDC either.

The postage rate was correct for an airmail letter, and the cancellation is quite crisp and clear. It was evidently intended to be sent through the post.

The addition of the Surinam stamp as a 'label' reinforcing the boxed slogan message of the cancellation is, in my humble opinion, quite inspired.

posted 09-10-2023 10:06 AM               

On a side note, I believe that May 20th was the first day for the Freedom 7 slogan cancellation, have not seen any earlier dates than this, but maybe they are out there...

posted 09-10-2023 03:22 PM               

I think Jeff is correct with a May 30th first day slogan usage, but I can't recall any significance as to why May 30th had been selected nor its last day in operation (Aug. 30)? There simply might not be any special reason why those dates were chosen.