Astrophilately
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Astrophilately is a branch of philately which deals with the collection of stamps and postmarked envelopes related to spaceflight. It is the intersection of space and postal history. Covers cancelled on the date and at a post office near the controlling agency are used in postal exhibits to share the development and conquest of the cosmos.
Scope
Topics of interest include
The
Collecting
As with regular airmail, items of mail carried aboard spacecraft are known as "flown covers".[2] They are known from both Soviet- and American-flown missions. While some types are rare, others, such as Space Shuttle covers, were carried in large numbers, and are thus relatively common, costing less than US$50.
Perhaps the most common item of astrophilately is the "STS-8 flight cover". In cooperation with the USPS, the Space Shuttle Challenger flight STS-8 carried several hundred thousand covers, franked with $9.35 express mail stamps, which were then sold to the public after the shuttle's return.[citation needed] The original plan was to carry 500,000, but the final number was reduced to 261,900, of which 2,523 were damaged during the flight and discarded.[citation needed] The remaining covers were each enclosed in a souvenir folder describing the mission and the cover, and sold for $15.35 each.[citation needed] They were sold out by November 1983, just a few months after the flight.[citation needed]
Much rarer are the "Sieger" covers, carried on
See also
References
- ^ "FIP Commissions". Fédération Internationale de Philatélie. 2017. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
- ^ "Glossary of Aerophilatelic Covers". American Air Mail Society. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f Weinberger, Howard. "The Flown Apollo 15 Sieger Covers". Space Flown Artifacts. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
Further reading
Astrophilately items may be found in specialised books and catalogues:
- Kronstein, Max. Rocket Mail flights of the World, 1986.
- Lollini Conquête de l' espace, 21st edition, 2008.
- Lollini Catalogue des Cosmodromes, 8th edition, 2005.
- Space Cover Dictionary & Identifier, Year 2006 Edition
- Weebau Catalogue, 1991. (Supplement 1994)
- Ball, David S. American Astrophilately: The First Fifty Years, 2010
- Space Craft Covers: A Monograph and Catalog http://spacecovers.com/misc/book_review_1.htm
- Walter Michael Hopferwieser: Pionierraketenpost und kosmische Post - Handbuch und Spezialkatalog, Wien 2016