posted 05-05-2024 10:50 AM               

Space Cover 752: Orsino, Florida

The above cover was hand-cancelled at Orsino, Florida on May 4th, 1959, the fourth flight of the Titan I missile and the fourth flight from Launch Complex 15 (LC-15). The cachet is from the Highway Stamp Club (181 Harris St., Revere 51, Massachusetts) which includes typewritten details of the launch.

What intrigued me most about this cover: prior to purchasing it, I was unaware a post office at Orsino, Florida even existed. I had previously noticed the town on old Brevard County maps but did not know there were space covers from here.

As was the case for much of Merrit Island in the early 1900's, the area was inhabited by farmers with orange groves. The influx of settlers during the 1910's to 1930's was largely boosted by the construction of improved roads and maybe most importantly the promise from the state to not levy income taxes.

Orsino no longer exists as it once did, having been located near what is now the intersection of NASA Parkway East (SR405) and Kennedy Parkway North (SR3). It was named after Orsino T. Smith (1870-1939), a farmer originally from Missouri and Spanish American War veteran who owned a large amount of property in the area. He was also the first Postmaster of Orsino, with the office opening October 5th, 1915. The post office served the community, listed as about 100 people in 1939, until the office closed on June 20th, 1963, with all future mail transferred to Merrit Island post office. Orsino can be seen on SR3 in the middle of this AP map from 1961.

The date of this closure coincides with the government's purchase of 125 sq. miles of Merritt Island to construct the Kennedy Space Center as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) was insufficient to house all the facilities the new Apollo program would require. It is Orsino's proximity to the CCAFS launch sites which most likely prompted the Highway Stamp Club to seek out cancels for events. One interesting thing I discovered while looking at satellite maps, since LC-15 is located further north on the Cape, it is marginally closer to Orsino versus the old Port Canaveral post office (Orsino 7.1 miles vs. Port Canaveral 7.25 miles).

Below is a summary of dates/events that have known Orsino covers, all listed are from the Highway Stamp Club. As noted, Orsino is closer than Port Canaveral for LC-15 launches, but for all other launch complexes listed here Port Canaveral is still closest.

• March 3rd, 1959 – Pioneer IV from LC-5.
  
• May 4th, 1959 – Titan I from LC-15
  
• May 22nd, 1959 – Unknown event, no writing
  
• June 22nd, 1959 – Vanguard SLV-6 from LC-18A
  
• July 10th, 1959 – Jupiter IRBM from LC-26B
  
• August 7th, 1959 – Explorer 6 from LC-17A
  
• December 8th, 1959 – Atlas 31D from LC-13

So, for these early Titan launches, Orsino may just be "the cover" you want…what do you think? If anyone has more information or photos of Orsino please share, also, do you have any Orsino covers in your collection?

posted 05-05-2024 05:33 PM               

I'm happy with having a postmark for the first US (somewhat) successful Moon probe from a place that, only a decade later, was in the epicenter of launching people to the Moon. And will be again with the advent of Artemis.

Here's a photo of one of the houses from Orsino being towed out, with the (then brand new) VAB in the background:

posted 05-05-2024 05:59 PM               

Hard to believe that before NASA came into the area, there were many other small town communities within Brevard County on northern Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, and Titusville. Some of them were Canaveral, DeSoto Beach, Wilson, Nathan, Heath, Indian River City, along with probably well-known Artesia to most serious early space cover collectors. But as a side note, the launch pads for Vanguard, Thor, Redstone, Jupiter, Juno, Polaris, Minuteman, and early Atlas vehicles were just a bit shy in distance from Orsino than in comparison to the old Port Canaveral post office location.

In my opinion, certainly Orsino cancels on space covers of that day are not common in most all cases that I know of.