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[b]Space Cover #397: Christmas in Space[/b] [i]We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.[/i] With those words, astronaut Bill Anders introduced the world to the view of the lunar surface from the Apollo 8 capsule as he, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman became the first humans to orbit the moon. In turn, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman continued reading the rest of the passage through verse 10 from the Book of Genesis. Borman added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas — and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth." For those of us sitting in our living rooms, watching the moon practically whiz by the window of the capsule, it was a very emotional experience, especially on the eve of Christmas Day. This Christmas Eve cancel was sent from the Public Affairs Office at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston because this site was controlling the mission. Until the new seventh version of the Manual of Philatelic Judging, this would be the only cancellation site that could be exhibited in World Series of Philately (WSP) competition. This was because the wording stated that "cancels must be from the nearest post office to the event," and neither Kennedy Space Center nor Cape Canaveral had any functions once the Saturn V cleared the launch tower on the 21st of December. However, most collectors also had covers cancelled at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral for this event and many were signed by members of the crews or some of the other persons involved in the Apollo 8 mission. The word "nearest" was mirrored from the FIP (Fédération Internationale de Philatélie) rules and there were many flaws with that. Flown to the moon covers bear cancels from Webster, TX (Apollo 11), Houston, (Apollo 12), Ellington AFB (Apollo 13), and the prime recovery ship, USS Okinawa (Apollo 15). I asked the FIP which cancels were valid and which were not. Apollo 7 launched from Cape Canaveral; did that mean that the Kennedy Space Center officials were not valid for that or for the Gemini 5 through Gemini 12 flights? There were other examples and the FIP agreed and changed the wording to "nearby" rather than "nearest." The NASA book, "The Kennedy Space Center Story" further relates that when Kennedy launches started, both Cape Canaveral and Patrick AFB retained several of their existing launch responsibilities. The change now validates launch covers from those two sites that were held invalid up until now. But for deep space activities, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral and Patrick AFB covers were still invalid for exhibiting. However, that NASA book also related that the Merritt Island Launch Area (MILA) is located on Kennedy Space Center property and its function was to convert the digital images from space to analog so that the viewing public could see the video streaming from lunar orbit. That means that the Kennedy Space Center post office was nearby on the same land as MILA and hence, KSC covers can then be just as valid for exhibiting as are tracking and communication stations around the globe. Another memorable space mission occurred on Christmas Day 1973 when the Skylab 4 crew members Jerry Carr and Bill Pogue conducted a Christmas space walk to view the comet Kohoutek while Ed Gibson, aboard the Skylab space station watched this "star" as well. It would be difficult to not tie this viewing of a "star" on Christmas day to the day when three other wise men watched a star that took them to Bethlehem. This cover bears a Christmas Day cancel from Cape Canaveral and I will still exhibit it, possibly losing a judging point for doing so, but the date and the event are too good to exclude. The comet was 14 million miles from the sun when the astronauts viewed it. This was the Philgraph cachet for the second space walk on December 29th and would have been ideal for the first walk. May you all have a great Christmas and may you locate some key space covers for your collections in 2017. Also, if you don't exhibit and show others evidence of our hobby, the new judging guidelines should now give you a good shot at getting better judging reviews. But it will still take several shows and judging inputs to hit Gold repeatedly as you promote Astrophilately this way. Merry Christmas!
[i]We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.[/i]
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