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[b]Space Cover #216: Tracking Envelopes[/b] A popular area for collectors is covers manually created from "tracking maps." The earliest covers of this type seem to be from the Apollo 12 mission with the use of the Earth orbital map showing the various tracking stations cancelled for the launch and splashdown dates and a Moon orbital map cancelled for the landing date. Shown above are some tracking envelope covers for the Apollo 14 mission with a Moon orbital map cancelled from Houston for the orbit insertion and moon landing dates - if you look at the map on the envelope it shows the events for those two days. The second cover is cancelled from Houston for the splashdown date and is an Earth orbital map with the map area on the front of the cover showing the recovery area. The original maps are cut into the shape of unfolded envelopes and then folded and glued into the envelope shape for processing as a regular cover. [IMG]http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx232/yeknom-ecaps/trkenv2_zpsa679698c.jpg[/IMG] The next scan shows covers created for the Apollo 15 mission with a moon landing cover from a Moon orbital map cancelled from KSC and a splashdown cover made from an Earth orbital map showing the recovery area cancelled from Western Samoa. Covers like this are not just found in space event cover boxes but also in FDC boxes as well. The covers below are both on Moon orbital maps with FDI cancels for plate blocks of the Space Achievement stamps. Note the interesting cancel from Huntsville – FDI with no CDS to the left of it and the CDS on the right hand side in the selvage area of the block. [IMG]http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx232/yeknom-ecaps/trkenv3_zps34956d16.jpg[/IMG] I have seen covers like these created for shuttle missions as well with "road maps" used to show the area around KSC and Edwards AFB used to create envelopes for the launch and landing dates. Does anyone have any to show? Creating their own envelopes allowed collectors to show exactly what they wanted on the envelope to match the location of the event. So next time you are looking for covers consider adding a few "map" covers to your collection.
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