posted 02-25-2024 08:19 AM               

Space Cover 742: A Tale of two Saturn V's

I'm sure we can all agree that the Saturn V was one of the most impressive launch vehicles to ever fly. It was 363 feet tall with a combined first stage thrust of 7.5 million pounds. With the detonation power of a small nuclear warhead it shook buildings at the press site 3 miles from the launch pad during launch.

It was a purpose-built vehicle made to put the Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit and then to reignite the third stage to send the command/service module and lunar module combination to the lunar environment. Without the Saturn V it is doubtful the US would have achieved the goal of landing men on the moon in 1969.

There were a total of 13 Saturn V launches. The first two Saturn V launches were unmanned full-up test flights. These were known as Apollo 4 (AS-501) and Apollo 6 (AS-502). Apollo 4 was launched Nov. 9, 1967 and was a highly successful mission. Apollo 6 was launched April 4, 1968 and had a few issues with the second and third stages but was still considered a successful test flight. Once the Apollo 6 issues were understood and fixed, the next Saturn V launch sent the Apollo 8 crew into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968.

The above cover is postmarked for both test flights of the Saturn V launch vehicle. The cover is postmarked with a Cape Canaveral machine cancel for the Apollo 4 launch and has a Bob Whitney cachet commemorating the event. It was then postmarked with a Cape Canaveral hand cancel for the Apollo 6 launch. An impressive cover for an impressive launch vehicle.

posted 02-25-2024 11:09 AM               

I believe this designation might have one of two origins, or maybe a fortuitous combination of both! I wonder which one was foremost in the cachet maker's mind?

It might mean that the Saturn V, propelling the Apollo 4 CSM, was 17th in the Apollo series, viz.:

1. SA-1 Saturn C-1 27Oct61
   
2. SA-2 Saturn test, ice cloud 25Apr62
   
3. SA-3 16Nov62
   
4. SA-4 28Mar63
   
5. SA-5 launch S-IV orbited
   
6. Project Fire-1 14Apr64
   
7. SA-6 (AS-101) boilerplate Apollo 28May64
   
8. SA-7 (AS-102) 18Sep64
   
9. SA-9 (AS-103) Pegasus 16Feb65
   
10. Project Fire-2 22May65
    
11. SA-8 (AS-104) Pegasus-B 25May65
    
12. SA-10 (AS-105) Pegasus-3 30Jul65
    
13. AS-201 1st Apollo u/manned 26Feb66
    
14. AS-203 Saturn1b 5Jul66
    
15. AS-202 2nd Apollo u/m flight 25Aug66
    
16. Apollo 1 fire tragedy
    
17. AS-501 Apollo 4 9Nov67

posted 02-25-2024 12:04 PM               

Below are a couple more combo-covers regarding Apollo 4, but this time not with both Saturn V's together, but rather events that are 55 years apart; first flight covers of America's two largest but completely different launch vehicle programs launched from the same launch complex 39.