August 5, 2025 — Space exploration is among the most popular themes for U.S. postage stamps according to a new booklet released in celebration of 250 years of mail delivery in the United States.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) marked its semiquincentennial with "Putting a Stamp on the American Experience," a 32-page prestige booklet dedicated to the subjects that have resonated with the public. The publication is only the fourth of its type to come from the postal service.
"Since the Inverted Jenny embarked on its first flight in 1918, stamps have celebrated every effort to aim ever higher — such as the 1967 stamp to recognize the first American spacewalk in 1965 and the 2019 issuance to mark the 50th anniversary of the first humans to land on the moon," reads an excerpt from the two pages devoted to aviation and spaceflight.
The inverted Jenny is one of the most famous postage stamps in U.S. history, given that it was made an error and only 100 are known to exist today. The depiction of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane at its center was accidentally printed upside down, or inverted.
The postal service's choices to represent space includes the first U.S. attached pair to have a continuous design, featuring artist Paul Calle's illustration of astronaut Ed White's extravehicular activity (EVA) outside of the Gemini 4 capsule. Titled "Accomplishments in Space," the spacewalk was meant to be symbolic of all of NASA's successes during its first nine years as the country's space agency.
The other stamp commemorates the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, but it was only the latest to do so. The First Day Cover (an envelope stamped and postmarked for the first day a stamp has been issued) for the 10-cent "A Man on the Moon" stamp was the most popular in the USPS's history.
The September 1969 stamp was also the first oversize commemorative and its master die was flown to the moon with the astronauts. Also designed by Calle, it was the first stamp to be postmarked in space.
In its 250-year history, the USPS has released more than 100 stamps featuring space-related subjects, beginning in 1948 with a stamp depicting a V-2 missile launch from Fort Bliss in Texas. Seventy-five years later, in 2023, the postal service was honored by Space Foundation with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for its space-themed postage.
Other issues that both depicted space history and made philatelic history included:
the first and only "surprise" release in U.S. postage history, a 1962 4-cent stamp honoring John Glenn's Mercury mission, which was produced and distributed to post offices in secret;
the 1971 "Space Achievement Decade" pair that were the first stamps to be postmarked on the moon during NASA's Apollo 15 mission;
a 1975 10-cent pair celebrating the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which like the mission, was the USPS's first joint issue with the Soviet Union;
the postal service's first-ever Priority Mail stamp, which in 1989 was designed by Chris Calle, the son of artist Paul Calle, to honor the 20th anniversary of the first moon landing;
the 1994 Express Mail stamp designed by Paul and Chris Calle, which was the first space-topical stamp to be flown into space (500,000 on space shuttle Endeavour) and then sold by the USPS to the public (a similar, earlier offer involved flown envelopes affixed with the 1983 Eagle and Moon Express Mail stamp);
the 2011 "Space Firsts: Alan B. Shepard" stamp, which in addition to honoring the first U.S. astronaut to fly into space, was the first USPS stamp to depict any U.S. astronaut as a tribute to him (or her) and not their missions (the first American woman to fly into space, Sally Ride, was similarly posthumously honored in 2018).
"Putting a Stamp on the American Experience" includes two additional space-related stamps that marked firsts for the postal service: the "Space Achievement and Exploration" Earth and the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.
"Even as we've explored innovative ways to deliver the mail, stamp printing has also kept up with the times," the last pages of the booklet reads. "A 1997 triangular issuance and a circular, holographic stamp in a 2000 space issuance showed the potential for fun new approaches. In recent years, thermochromic ink turned an eclipse into the moon with the touch of a thumb."
The "Putting a Stamp on the American Experience" prestige booklet is available for $20.95 from the USPS Postal Store. Each booklet includes two sheets of 10 stamps featuring the country's first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin, as a "modern interpretation" of one of the first two U.S. postage stamps from 1847.
The USPS is also currently holding a "Stamp Encore Contest," allowing the public to vote for a previous stamp design to be reissued in 2026. The candidate stamps do not include any space exploration subjects, but the Total Solar Eclipse is among the 25 choices. Voting is open online and by mail through Sept. 30, 2025. |
|
The United States Postal Service's new prestige booklet, "Putting a Stamp on the American Experience" highlights space exploration subjects as among the most popular postage stamps over the past 250 years of U.S. mail delivery. (USPS/collectSPACE)
The cover art for the United States Postal Service's new prestige booklet "Putting a Stamp on the American Experience" includes the art for one of the two "1969: First Moon Landing" Forever stamps issued in 2019 for the Apollo 11 mission's 50th anniversary. (USPS)
Beginning with the 1948 Fort Bliss 3-cent stamp, which depicted a V-2 launch, the USPS has celebrated the nation's efforts in space with more than 100 postage stamps. (USPS/collectSPACE)
The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse stamp could be re-issued in 2026 if it wins the public's vote in the USPS Stamp Encore Contest. (USPS) |
