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[b]Space Cover #514: Creating your own space cachets[/b] In these days of home computers and home printing it is easy for all of us to become cachet makers. Back in 1969 my dad produced his own rubber stamp cachet to use on his Apollo 11 covers. Since it was a rubber stamp it was the same cachet for each and every cover he used it on other than maybe changing the color of the ink. Today it is quite easy to add a cachet of your own choosing to any cover. I have done this many times myself. For example, I did covers for the 50th anniversary of each of the manned Project Mercury flights. For each flight I used a launch photo specific to that flight for the cachet. Just a quick internet search found the photo which was then verified to be correct by the number on the side of the booster. Relatively quick and painless and you end up with a very nice cover with a nice printed cachet. Of all the covers I have created with my own cachet the one pictured above is probably my favorite. It is postmarked for the launch of STS-135 which was the final launch of the Space Shuttle program. The cachet I chose to add was one of the pictures I took of the launch. For the launch I was standing on top of the blockhouse at historic Launch Complex-14 which is where the four manned Mercury missions were launched from. I was about 7 miles away and looking towards the north giving a unique viewing angle. On the left side of the photo you can see some of the other blockhouses for some of the other launch complexes of famed ICBM Row. This cover was with me in my camera bag on top of the blockhouse making it a "carried" cover as well. Later on, the STS-135 crew made an appearance at the USS Intrepid Museum in New York. My dad attended the appearance and was lucky to be able to get the signatures of Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. Only Commander Chris Ferguson is missing as the crew had to move on to another engagement before Dad could obtain his autograph. With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing quickly approaching I'm sure many people will be producing covers and adding their own cachets to those covers. What cachets have you produced for some of your own covers? Show us some examples!
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