posted 06-13-2020 12:44 PM               

Space Cover #566: STS-9, Spacelab's first flight

The ninth space shuttle flight, STS-9, was a ten-day, 166 orbit flight that utilized ESA's Spacelab module for the first time to carry out 24-hour scientific experiments and research using two-man teams.

STS-9 accomplished a number of space and shuttle firsts, but not all planned or desired. The flight of STS-9 was the first time six individuals were carried into space on a single vehicle, and the first time that two non-NASA Astronauts, including the first non-American citizen, German Ulf Merbold, flew on a NASA spaceflight.

On the negative side was that STS-9 was the first time a shuttle had to be rolled back to the VAB for repairs, which included the first de-stacking and then rollback to the pad. Then at the end of the successful mission orbiter Columbia returned to earth basically on fire, as a fire broke out in two of the three Auxiliary Power Units due to a Hydrazine leak.It was a scary situation, as the fire was not extinguished and only burned itself out.

Shown above are two special STS-9 covers, with the top cover bearing three STS-9 pictorial hand stamp cancels: KSC for launch; Houston for Mission Control; and Edwards AFB for landing. This is one of ten triple-canceled STS-9 emblem covers that were created by the joint effort of Ken Havekotte and German cover dealer Carsten Fuchs, who personally carried them to both Houston and Edwards for those cancels.

The cover below it is also special, as it has a German shuttle stamp affixed and canceled at KSC for launch and then canceled with the "jumbo-size" EAFB hand cancel for landing.

This is an STS-9 crew signed emblem cover that those of us who collect shuttle crew signed covers know are rarely seen and not many, both covers and crew lithos, were signed by all six crew members, with John Young's autograph missing from many. It's my opinion that complete (signed by all six crew members) STS-9 crew signed covers and crew lithos, are the rarest of the first 24 shuttle flights, and probably would be included in the top 10-15 rarest of the 135 shuttle flights.

posted 06-14-2020 04:23 AM               

Below, some of the covers for the 1st rollout, postponed day, roll back and 2nd rollout for this first Spacelab mission.

Maybe Ken made covers carried onboard both rollouts for this space mission.

posted 06-14-2020 05:16 PM               

Here are a couple more emblem crew signed covers that you may be familiar with (!), Bob, along with a few other interesting or unusual STS-9/Columbia emblem cover varieties. STS-9 was also the first time in U.S. Postal Service history that a special pictorial cancellation series had become available for a manned U.S. spaceflight. Note the special hand cancels that were applied to STS-9 launch covers at KSC, Houston for Spacelab orbital operations, and landing of Columbia/SL-1 at Edwards AFB.

I've also included a few Spacelab 1 cover depictions since SL-1 was such a pioneering first-joint NASA-ESA shuttle mission with the first purpose built space laboratory that included the first European shuttle astronaut, Ulf Merbold, of Germany.

The Spacelab 1 covers depicted here, with only a few for now, go way back to the start of the European-built Spacelab program with a cover entry from Houston in 1974. Included are other early Spacelab covers throughout the 1970's in the U.S., Germany, and France with signatures of key program officials along with a couple of "flown" Spacelab-related event covers.

posted 06-16-2020 07:42 AM               

Our SCOTW's being mainly about covers, don't want to get into autographs too much, but it is surprising about how rare STS-9 crew signed material is - both covers and crew lithos. Actually the rarity is mainly due to John Young being reluctant to sign STS-9 material, with the other five crew members actually signing a fair amount of STS-9 material.

However, there is a complete crew signed STS-9 cover in the current American Space Museum auction (wonderful material!), lot 197, but with a poorly-placed and quickly-applied Young signature.

As far as the rarest Mercury to Demo-2 crew signed material, that Ken brought up, certainly STS-9 is high on the list, but there are also a number of later shuttle flights that are also rare, such as STS-71, with all 10 crew members (two up to Mir and 2 down) and STS-102 and STS-105, also with up-and down crews. Of course, we can't leave out STS-51L, with an extremely small number of covers signed by all seven, but with a fair number of crew signed lithos.