posted 03-07-2015 01:36 PM               

Space Cover #307: Orion EFT-1: Launch and Recovery Covers

On December 5, 2014, the Orion spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a Delta IV Heavy rocket on Exploration Flight Test-1. The flight went as planned and the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles south of San Diego, CA.

Various well-done covers were done for the Orion launch at Cape Canaveral and have been shown here. But previous reports indicated that philatelic service from the USS Anchorage and the San Diego post office for recovery-related cancels was not provided, with covers not being returned or reasons given (This collector sent covers to the Naval Base San Diego post office for cancels for the USS Anchorage's return to port on December 8, with the Orion capsule, and were returned as undeliverable after about a month).

But while mailed-in covers were evidently not accepted, arrangements were made to have covers canceled with a San Diego, CA cancel for the recovery, as shown here.

The above cover is a launch (Cape Canaveral) and recovery (San Diego) double canceled cover. While the launch and recovery took place the same day and 3,000 miles apart, these launch and recovery covers were possible after arrangements were made to have San Diego cancels provided later from the Kansas City Philatelic Center in Kansas City, MO.

The top cover marks the Orion EFT-1 launch at Cape Canaveral and the bottom cover marks the recovery of Orion by the USS Anchorage.

The cover at the top is a Lollini cover for Orion EFT-1 Mission Control operations in Houston, and the bottom cover marks the Ikhana remotely controlled unmanned aircraft based at Edwards AFB, CA and used in photography support of Orion's splashdown operations.

The Orion EFT-1 flight was the first big step in our nation having manned space launch capability again, and now collectors will have the opportunity of adding both Orion EFT-1 launch and recovery covers to their collections for this important milestone event.

posted 03-03-2023 12:36 PM               

As a side bar, though, the printed cachet emblem covers above that Bob and Ross referred to were the last cover productions used by NASA Exchange here at Kennedy. They had been provided by SpaceCoast Cover Service (SCCS) for their employee gift shops on space center grounds along with their availability at all the major NASA and contractor launch viewing sites when Delta IV Heavy rocketed Orion on her first deep space journey nearly a decade ago.