posted 07-18-2023 11:06 AM            

And then I stumble across 'Mercury Program. Saigon, Vietnam Backdated Covers' in Bulver although it is referenced to Les Winick 'Vietnam Trickery' Astrophile Vol.xxxx #4 July 1995 6-7. The Significant Comment states: "cachets are suspect since the date of the cancel does not correspond with the date of the event."

I have one of these - the Scott Carpenter MA-7 flight of 24 May 1962, and I thought oh no I don't want another suspect/fake!

But... let's set the record straight here. For the MA-7 cover Bulver says this:

• date of launch May 26 1962
  
• date in Saigon May 27 1962
  
• date on suspect cover May 26 1962

The flight of MA-7 started at 12:45 UTC on 24th May 1962 at Cape Canaveral USA and ended just north of Puerto Rico at 17:41 UTC on the same date, four hours and 56 minutes later.

Cape Caneveral is four hours behind GMT (which equates to four hours behind UTC), whereas Ho Chi Minh City (the ex Saigon) is seven hours ahead of GMT.

So, Scott Carpenter's MA-7 launched

• 8:45am USA
  "In the pre-dawn darkness of May 24, technicians assisted Carpenter into his spacecraft and sealed the hatch. Following a smooth countdown, flight managers called for a halt at T-minus 11 minutes to allow the Sun to burn off the morning fog. After a 45-minute hold, the countdown resumed and the Atlas rocket carrying Carpenter inside Aurora 7 lifted off into the morning sky, trailing a pillar of flame" quote NASA.

  ...which equates to:
  

• 12:45pm London
  
• 7:45pm Vietnam

Therefore it is nonsense to suggest as Les Winick seems to have, that the MA-7 flight took place one date later in Vietnam time.

Of course 7:45pm is late in the day, and I have no idea what times South Vietnamese postal clerks worked till in 1962, or indeed what times postal covers were allowed to be postmarked with the date they were submitted for cancellation in the former Republic. But I know this, the same evening in Vietnam certainly wasn't on a different date to the same morning in the USA.

Scott Carpenter splashed down at:

• 1:41pm 24 May 1962 Puerto Rico time
  
• 5:41pm GMT, 24 May 1962
  
• 12:41pm or 19 minutes before midnight of 24th May 1962 in Saigon.

posted 07-18-2023 11:43 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Axman:
12:41pm or 19 minutes before midnight of 24th May 1962 in Saigon.

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posted 07-18-2023 12:16 PM            

But, however, the cover is a 'launch cover' (I know it doesn't qualify as such in astrophilatelic rules because Saigon wasn't the nearest place to the launch). But at the moment of launch it was still 24th May 1962 in Vietnam...

To anticipate contra-arguments a little I would also add this. Although I fully acknowledge that the cover (i.e. when the cachet was applied) was produced some months after the launch date, it doesn't mean that the covers bare of cachets weren't stamped and cancelled on the day in question. After all it wasn't a secret which day the launch was planned for.