posted 03-09-2024 01:05 PM               

Unfortunately I do not own a first day cover of it to illustrate here, they are hard to find, although the stamp itself is easy to obtain.

The Origin of the IAC:

During 1950 correspondence developed between three early rocket societies, Stuttgart Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung, the British Interplanetary Society, and the Groupement Astronautique Francais with a view to forming an international astronautical society.

After interest was shown from societies as far afield as Argentina, Denmark, Canada and the USA, an initial meeting was hastily set up and hosted by Alexander Ananoff, the President of the French society. The Paris meeting was held over two days in September 1950, and on the second day representatives from nine societies in eight countries (France, Britain, Argentina, Austria, Denmark, West Germany, Spain, Sweden) agreed to form an International Astronautical Federation.

The British Interplanetary Society was tasked with creating a constitution and holding a Congress in London in 1951 in which the new federation would be inaugurated. (Thus it should be noted the IAC is numbered from the Paris meeting in 1950, a whole year before the IAF was inaugurated at the second IAC in 1951).

Subsequently many societies from countries around the globe entered into the federation. (It should be further noted as a matter of interest, that during the period of the 'cold war' at the height of the Race Into Space, the Congresses of the IAF were the only place where Russian and American experts in rocketry and space travel could meet and exchange views with their counterparts).

A nice philatelic collection can be built up of IAF Congresses.

In true astrophilatelic spirit you can just collect an envelope or postcard postmarked in the relevant city that hosted the Congress on the relevant date.

Or more pertinently, you can collect special postmarks that reference the Congress, especially if cancelled at "special post offices" for the occasion.

And better yet, you can find cacheted covers for a Congress. Especially nice if the Congress cachet is boosted by a Congress cancellation.

But the ultimate in IAF Congress covers can be found where cacheted covers bear a dedicated commemorative postal stamp issued to mark the Congress, cancelled by a special Congress postmark.

And I'm certain there must be some spectacular covers in existence autographed by any number of rocket pioneers, administrators, engineers and astronauts, but I haven't got any yet.

My initial collecting aim regarding the IAC is limited; I am trying to obtain at least one cover for each of the Congresses from the first up until the XXIIIrd. So far I have just five covers for four Congresses.

My earliest cover is for Congress XIII held in Varna, Bulgaria between 19-23 September 1962. It is a First Day Cover, with a blue printed cachet, postmarked in Sofia the day after the Congress closed with a special rocket-themed cancellation, and features two stamps:

[*]the 5st portrays a medallion portrait of the pioneer of theoretical rocketry Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow (that was yet to be built, and only officially unveiled two years after this stamp was printed, in 1964).

[*]the 13st shows the flight path of a rocket from the USSR and around the moon, celebrating the famous 1959 flight of Luna-3.

My favourite IAC cover is from the XVIIth Congress held in Madrid, Spain on the 9-15 October 1966. Again it is a First Day Cover, this one issued on 10th October. Both the stamp and the thermographic printed cachet depict Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza astride the wooden horse Clavileño the Swift. If you are not familiar with Cervantes, then it would be difficult to describe why this image is appropriate for the International Astronautical Congress, suffice it to say the cachet additionally has a Mercury space capsule thus showing where the imagination can lead to.

My other covers do not bear dedicated postage stamps, just cachets and special postmark cancellations.

There are two from Konstanz, West Germany in 1970 (XXI) marking the visits of the crews of Apollo 13 and Soyuz 9 to the Congress, and a cover from Vienna, Austria fof the 1972 (XXIII) Congress.

Although personally I only collect up until 1972, the IAC is ongoing and I know of other cachets with dedicated stamps out there, such as the 1996 (47th) in Beijing, China and the 2011 (62nd) in South Africa.