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Author Topic:   Space Cover 716: Liberty Bell 7
cvrlvr99
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Posts: 205
From: Arlington, TX
Registered: Aug 2014

posted 08-27-2023 06:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cvrlvr99   Click Here to Email cvrlvr99     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Space Cover of the Week, Week 716 (August 27, 2023)

Space Cover 716: Liberty Bell 7

Above is a Space Craft Cachet postmarked at Patrick AFB on July 21, 1961, when Virgil I (Gus) Grissom was launched on a 15.5 minute suborbital flight, known as Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR4) in a capsule named Liberty Bell 7. The cachet is #8 in Vukotich's "Space Craft Covers: A Monograph and Catalog" and he lists only 30 as having been made. It is often informally referred to as a "Green Grissom" being nearly identical to Space Craft Cachets issued for MR's 1 through 3, only in green ink instead of black.

All of you probably know that the flight was a textbook repeat of Shepard's earlier MR-3 flight, that is until after splashdown. As Liberty Bell 7 floated in the ocean, its hatch suddenly blew, it started taking on water, and Grissom had to swim for his life. One recovery helicopter tried to lift the capsule out of the water, but the waterlogged capsule was too heavy, causing too much strain on the helicopter engine, and the crew had to cut the cable to the spacecraft and let it sink. Meanwhile Grissom, swimming in a lot of rotor wash from the helicopter with his space suit filling with water through an open oxygen port, was finally rescued by another helicopter before further disaster. He was flown to the prime recovery ship, the aircraft carrier USS Randolph.

Here is a cover from the Randolph for Grissom's recovery. It features the "Randolph Over" hand cancel (the words "USS Randolph" are at the top of the die hub), and a Swanson self-serve rubber stamped cachet. "Randolph Under" postmarks also exist from the Randolph for this recovery.

After the flight, Grissom received all the medals that Shepard did, but not at the White House as Shepard had. And Grissom took a lot of (likely unfounded) blame for blowing the hatch too early. In 1999, Liberty Bell 7 was found and recovered from the ocean floor, and investigations indicated static electricity as the likely cause for the hatch to blow (not Gus).

So, let's show Gus some of the respect that he didn't get back then, and post your favorite MR-4 Liberty Bell 7 covers! And if any of you have covers for the recovery of Liberty Bell 7 in 1999, let's post those too!

Axman
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Posts: 191
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023

posted 08-27-2023 09:15 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Axman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm not sure about 'favourite', but here are my pair of covers for Gus Grissom's flight.

I hope Ken and Tom note the very crisp Port Canaveral cancellation on the Zaso cover — very reminiscent of the early Sarzins.

yeknom-ecaps
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Posts: 838
From: Northville MI USA
Registered: Aug 2005

posted 08-27-2023 05:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for yeknom-ecaps   Click Here to Email yeknom-ecaps     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Axman:
I hope Ken and Tom note the very crisp Port Canaveral cancellation on the Zaso cover — very reminiscent of the early Sarzins.
In looking at Goldcraft Port Canaveral postmarked covers there is a change in Port Canaveral cancel on the covers between the LBJ Visits Cape cover of Jan 14 1961 and Ham Launch on Jan 31 1961 to the crisp one you note on the Zaso cover. The "old" postmark was not used on any future covers that I am aware of.

Ken Havekotte
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Posts: 3692
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-27-2023 08:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It looks to me that a new Port Canaveral hand cancel device may had been ordered in Jan. 1961. Since the older hand cancel strikes, as with the depicted above LBJ Cape visit, were not the best impressions in their later uses with what appears to be a lot of wear, smudging, and other used conditions.

This is nothing new for a small USPS post office of that era with an additional work load of trying to handle and process so many space covers. During some peak years of the shuttle program at the Titusville/KSC P.O. branch, or sub-postal station, there had been in use for shuttle and other space mail about a half-dozen hand cancel impressions. Not all of them were identical, but with a few different, in various ways.

The current postal stations here on the Florida Space Coast all have more than one hand cancel stamp in use. There are two different sized and types of hand device cancellers now at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, soon to be closed for philatelic services, and several types (3-4) at Cape Canaveral.

Ken Havekotte
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Posts: 3692
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-28-2023 11:46 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Loved the MR-4 husband-wife signed MR-4 cover by the Grissoms. The second posted cover with a Swanson, Finney and Nickel rubber stamp cover, Ray, is quite unusual as I don't recall ever seeing a launch site cover from Project Mercury cancelled aboard a prime recovery ship, and a nice one at that, of a not too often seen MR-4/USS Randolph ship cancel.

Below are a few more different cachet types for Gus' Liberty Bell 7 flight in July 1961 and note the additional Grissom signed Swanson printed cachet covers. These were actually hand signed in person at the Patrick AFB on-site post office when Grissom used the air base for his Cape visits in flying in and out.

Early space cover servicer and postal worker Dave Finney, when working at the area postal stations at Patrick, Cocoa, and Rockledge, would see the Mercury astronauts inside the base post office on a few rare occasions. In late 1961 Grissom was on the air base at the post office mailing out some letters of his, Finney asked the MR-4 pilot after his flight that same year if he would sign a few covers for him over the counter. It just so happened that Finney always kept a hand full of Mercury flight covers with him in case "any of the guys dropped in."

The airmail cover signed at bottom (centered) was one that I had for many decades. It was a Liberty Bell 7 prime recovery ship cover, the USS Randolph, a Navy aircraft carrier that picked up an almost-drowned astronaut at sea and his spaceflight capsule, but unfortunately as we all know, LB-7 was not able to be saved and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Another cover, at far right bottom, is one that Ray was asking to see. It's for LB-7's sunken recovered and retrieved Mercury spacecraft nearly 40 years afterwards. It's also signed by Curt Newport, the LB-7 expedition leader that brought Grissom's capsule back to its Cape/Port Canaveral launch site on July 21, 1999.

Perhaps it should be noted that the USS Randolph prime ship cover signed by Grissom seen above was eventually let go in a space RR auction in 2016. At that time, I was down- sizing my own space cover collections. If I recall, it sold for almost $17K, which someone told me at the time, was a new record for a sold major crew signed spaceflight cover, even though MR-4 was piloted by a single astronaut-mission flyer.

Axman
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Posts: 191
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023

posted 08-28-2023 12:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Axman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So, Ken, you have three Grissom signed 'Green Grissom' covers!!!?

Ken Havekotte
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Posts: 3692
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-28-2023 02:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Unfortunately, I now only have one of the signed "green Grissom" covers referred to (see top cover), but I did keep copies of the others. Postal worker and cover servicer M. L. Nickel also sold me a "green Grissom" along with his entire space cover holdings (of which I believe that his friend and co-worker Dave Finney gave him one of the signed "green" covers back in the day of Project Mercury). Another cover signed above in the montage may even have an atypical signature.

It would seem that MR-4 covers are indeed one of the most scarce crew signed U.S. manned spaceflight covers from 1961-75. Others in my opinion would be GT-3, GT-8, GT-10, Apollo 8, 16, and somewhat Apollo 13 with Swigert included and more with Mattingly added to the flown prime crew. As for Apollo 1 (AS-204), to the best of my knowledge, no pre-launch fully crew signed covers are known. I only have a single "signed" no cachet cover, but "signed" by autopens of the crew. Now concerning the original Gemini 9 crew of See and Bassett, once again, I did own a non-cachet cover with genuine autographs of the Gemini crew-assigned rookie astronauts together.

I've got a few other MR-4/Grissom signed items, but sure wish I had more signed material from his first spaceflight as the second American in space. There is one that I know of, a superb signed MR-4/Swanson-SCC, that our friend Bob McLeod proudly owns. Maybe Bob will see this posting topic here and share it with us.

Axman
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Posts: 191
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023

posted 08-29-2023 09:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Axman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks Ken, and yes I would love to see Bob's cover...

And, going back for a quick look through my albums, my missing astronaut signatures are a good though not exact match with your list above:

  • Gus Grissom (MR-4 / Gemini 3 / Apollo 1) xxx
  • Joseph A. Walker (X-15) xx
  • Ed White (Gemini 4 / Apollo 1) xx
  • Neil Armstrong (Gemini 8 / Apollo 11*) x autopen✓
  • [Roger Chaffee (Apollo 1)] x
  • William Anders (Apollo 8) x
  • Jack Swigert (Apollo 13) x

Bob M
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From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-29-2023 11:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bob M   Click Here to Email Bob M     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
Maybe Bob will see this posting topic here and have it illustrated for us.
Shown here are two more "green" MR-4 covers signed by Grissom that I was most fortunate to acquire way back in 1980.

Then I also had interest in stamps and subscribed to Linn's Stamp News. A small ad there offered a listing of astronaut signed covers for sale. It turned out to be a bonanza, with covers signed by almost all of the early astronauts, including many then deceased, such as Grissom, Chaffee, White, Givens, etc., plus von Braun, X-15 covers signed by Armstrong and covers signed by all seven Original Mercury Astronauts together.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I mostly took advantage of. However, I passed on a rare Grissom signed MR-4 Randolph cover because of fear that it was a Riser creation. But Ken "grabbed" it after I passed the listing on to him and Ken has shown it above. I believe the price was $275 and it turned out to be authentic as everything was.

Those were great days for us astronaut autograph collectors, with many astronauts signing for free thru the mail and also sometimes with significant material for sale or in auctions.

And, Ken, excellent MR-4 covers shown and with very interesting background info on them.

Antoni RIGO
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Posts: 299
From: Palma de Mallorca, Is. Baleares - SPAIN
Registered: Aug 2013

posted 08-30-2023 03:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Antoni RIGO   Click Here to Email Antoni RIGO     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just to be more accurate with dates for Port Canaveral "old postmark".

It seems that in Jan 31, 1961 it was still in use or it was used occasionally on request for collectors.

No later date for this PC "old postmark" I have never seen linked with a space event.

If anyone can search in your albums?

Ken Havekotte
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Posts: 3692
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-30-2023 04:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
After a brief check, Antoni, I have one of the PC's "old postmark" for a Blue Scout rocket test firing on March 3, 1961, on a Sarzin cover I think. I'll keep checking for others in 1961 as time permits and did you want to see the actual Blue Scout cover posted here?

It's quite possible, though, that if a new or replacement PC-hand cancel device was first used in late Jan. 1961, it doesn't necessarily mean that the old hand cancel version was no longer used or destroyed.

Antoni RIGO
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Posts: 299
From: Palma de Mallorca, Is. Baleares - SPAIN
Registered: Aug 2013

posted 08-31-2023 05:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Antoni RIGO   Click Here to Email Antoni RIGO     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes please. I would like to see this cover, if possible. Thanks.

Absolutely agree with you. Old PC postmark should not be destroyed, just replaced for the new one. It was occasionally used in some covers later than January 1961.

Ken Havekotte
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Posts: 3692
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-31-2023 11:56 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here is the Blue Scout cover, Antoni, with a March 3, 1961 "old postmark."

micropooz
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Posts: 1717
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 08-31-2023 02:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for micropooz   Click Here to Email micropooz     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
And back to Liberty Bell 7! My favorite Liberty Bell 7 cover in my collection is... can you guess? Yet another autographed Green Grissom! So between Ray's one, Ken's three, Bob's one, and mine, we can account for 20% of the listed population of Green Grissoms! And all signed by Grissom! Vukotich shows an unsigned one in his book, so we know of at least one unsigned one.

So, instead of me just showing the umpth Green Grissom, I thought I'd expand to show all the Liberty Bell 7 Space Craft Cachet variants. Below are Vukotich nos. 7 (top) and 7a. Three hundred of these cachets were printed, and the majority were postmarked at Patrick AFB (Vukotich no. 7). A small number were postmarked at Port Canaveral (7a). Note the "crisp" Port Canaveral postmark as discussed above in this thread.

Both of mine were addressed to J.R. Fitzpatrick, Swanson's partner in Space Craft Cachets. In case you are trying to read the tiny autograph on my no. 7, it's Jim Lewis who piloted the helicopter that so gallantly fought to keep Liberty Bell 7 afloat that day.

Below are Space Craft Cachets 8 and 9. Number 8 (top) is the proverbial Green Grissom, 30 listed as produced, and this one is signed by Gus. I bought it from the addressee about 20 years ago when he was liquidating his collection, for either $150 or $200, I don't remember which. Number 9 (bottom) is the Mercury Grissom limited edition, 50 made, and this one is no. 49 of 50. It has been autographed by Carl Swanson, the cachet designer.

Ken Havekotte
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Posts: 3692
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-31-2023 03:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Nice MR-4/Grissom covers, Dennis, and I know the "green Grissom's" are rare in finding them with a Cape hand cancel as they're mostly all Patrick Air Force Base.

If anyone is doing a count of the "green Grissom's" along with the better Swanson cachet printed covers, here are some of mine. I can't recall how many of the unsigned "green Grissom's" that I had altogether, maybe 15-20 or so, mostly from early space cover servicers and postal workers Finney and Nickel, but not all. Several had been traded and sold to fellow space cover collectors, a few dealers, and at space memorabilia shows throughout many years.

Eddie Bizub
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Posts: 134
From: Kissimmee, FL USA
Registered: Aug 2010

posted 09-04-2023 11:00 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Eddie Bizub   Click Here to Email Eddie Bizub     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here is one of my favorite Grissom covers. This is the standard issue Space Craft Cover for the MR-4 launch. It has been signed by Guenter Wendt (Pad Leader), Jim Lewis (Recovery Helo Pilot) and Curt Newport (Liberty Bell 7 Search Team Leader). I had the pleasure of meeting these three gentlemen at a space autograph show in New Jersey a number of years ago.

I like to think of this cover as being signed by the last person to touch the spacecraft prior to launch (Wendt), the last person to see the spacecraft (Lewis) and the person who found the spacecraft (Newport).

J. Priest
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Posts: 30
From: GA
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 10-01-2023 10:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for J. Priest   Click Here to Email J. Priest     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I, too, have a “green Grissom” cover with the Fort Sumter stamp and machine cancel. Sadly, mine is not signed by the pilot. I had not realized that it was a rare cover until reading this thread. I also have the MR-3 Spacecraft cover with and without the red “Boy, what a ride” quote. Any idea how many of those covers were made?

micropooz
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Posts: 1717
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 10-01-2023 01:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for micropooz   Click Here to Email micropooz     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Jeff - Vukotich lists 300 of the Shepard covers made in total, but unfortunately does not have a breakout of how many had the "Boy what a ride!" inscription vs. not.

randyc
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From: Denver, CO USA
Registered: May 2003

posted 10-07-2023 05:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for randyc   Click Here to Email randyc     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Is there a record of how many of the Swanson covers have a Port Canaveral HC (Vukotich 7a)?

micropooz
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Posts: 1717
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 10-07-2023 06:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for micropooz   Click Here to Email micropooz     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Randy, unfortunately no. But 7a's seem a lot scarcer than plain ol' 7's, for what it's worth...

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