posted 12-25-2009 10:25 AM               

In 70 years we traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon. This uniquely American story of the conquest of space is traced by stamp collectors who enjoy aerospace history. By exhibiting envelopes that are postmarked near launch pads, mission control centers, and on recovery ships Astrophilatelists tell an amazing tale of new sailing ships on a vast new ocean.

American Astrophilately assists beginner and advanced collectors in identifying envelopes which meet the International Philatelic Federation (FIP) guidelines for exhibition at stamp shows. More than a dozen experts have contributed articles to explain NASA official marks, tracking ships, prime recovery ships, and why some postmarks are preferred over others.

Part two shows hundreds of envelopes in full color appropriate for exhibition and the artist responsible for the cachets.

Part three shows the most important part -- the postmark. Machine and hand cancels from launch, mid-mission and recovery are shown from the Explorer 1 launch in 1958 through the X-Prize civilian spaceflight in 2004.

The appendices contain more than 700 pages of useful reference spreadsheets, lists, and charts. Sample award winning exhibits are included as well as guidelines and regulations from the FIP and US Postal Service.

A landmark volume useful to all space event cover collectors and budding astrophilatelists.

• Paperback: 356 pages
  
• Publisher: A & A Publishers, LLC; 1ST edition (February 15, 2010)
  
• ISBN-10: 0615342019
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0615342016

posted 06-02-2010 08:30 PM               

I can't imagine how much it might have cost to publish David's book, but the wrap-around cover is glorious and it contains high-quality gloss pages with literally hundreds of full-colour photos of covers, postmarks, stamps and other related items. He has managed to gather together some wonderful guest writers - many of them well known to regular collectSPACE readers - including folks such as Kris Stoever, Chris Calle, Joe Frasketti and Sean Marsar.

I not only like this beautiful book for the guest articles, but it covers topics ranging right back to the early stratospheric balloon flights and biomedical research rocket flights, through Projects Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and beyond. The illustrations are outstanding, as is the limited text, and I found it to be very authoritative when discussing such topics as covers, stamps, postmarks, tracking ships, recovery crews, and even fraudulent covers.

posted 06-07-2010 08:13 AM               

What makes it fantastic are the contributions by contributing authors. These expert authors are follows:

• Beatrice Bachman (excellent article on stratospheric balloon event covers)

• Dr. Ross Smith (Recovvery ship web site another fantastic cover resource reference)

• Kris Stover (Aurora 7 and Apollo 8 recovery covers - new information to me)

• Morris Beck (love all your classic covers, NAVAL and Space)

• Owen Murray (the website of all Beck covers, a critical resource for all to share)

• Steve Durst (an outstanding article from a fellow collwctor, mentor, and another author of many new space event books coming out in DVD/CD - get them all)

• Eberhard Coelle (excellent article on NASA Official Cachets from KSC, and a fascinating discussion of a dual canclelation effort for ASTP cover)
  
  
• Eddie Bizbub (his article on NASA - Western Lauch Operastions Division at Vandenberg AFB) was completely new to me. Now have a new list of cachets to seek out)

• Chris Calle (unique space artist discussion on his father, Paul Calle's creation of stamp designs (C76 being my favorite space stamp to collect, and now three generations of artists)

• Dr. Ben Ramkisson (a definitive article on specimens and proofs of Apollo 11 and 15 stamp creation, and post marks in outer space)

• Sean Marsar (excellent discussion of the dark side of space postmark forgeries - the Riser affair, unfortunately we all have examples of this)

• Robert Pearlman (who is he [kidding Robert], a great discussion of ASTP, and why this is the first website I sign on to everyday).

posted 06-21-2010 06:38 PM               

I was fascinated with the uniqueness of each chapter and the stories each author tells. Beautiful reproductions of interesting covers, postmarks and related material make this a must have book for the astrophilatelist and any space enthusiast. In my opinion this is an impressive book and one that I am very proud to have my artwork included.

posted 05-22-2011 05:36 PM               

• May 31, 2011; 1:00 - 3:00pm
  Washington, DC
  National Air and Space Museum

• June 1, 2011; 1:00 - 3:00pm
  Washington, DC
  National Postal Museum

• June 2, 2011; 12:00 - 2:00pm
  Chantilly, Virginia
  Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

posted 05-28-2011 03:35 AM               

I appreciate you contacting me about your copy of American Astrophilately. I learned at the beginning of the week that the order fulfillment service I use has gone out of business.

Apparently, orders dating back as much as 4 weeks have not shipped. I got an email from a customer yesterday who ordered May 5th also had the same question.

Yesterday the stock of books were moved from the warehouse to the new service. They hope to be up and running within a week.

posted 06-29-2013 05:07 PM               

Anyone who is interested in philatelic space matters should have this beautifully illustrated book. It contains articles by experts in this area and color images of many classic covers. A CD is included with even more information. It is an outstanding reference source.