|
Author
|
Topic: Covers flown aboard STS-7/Challenger?
|
pendragon
New Member Posts: 3
From: San Diego
Registered: Jul 2020
|
posted 08-04-2020 02:39 AM
   
Does anyone know or have any information if shuttle Flight STS-7 carried any postal covers onboard their flight? I know STS-8 did, it's well documented, but STS-7? I know of someone who says they have a cover that was flown onboard and they want to sell it. The one they have is hand stamped launch and landing. All other covers I've seen are machine cancelled launch and hand stamped landing. Any insight would be appreciated. |
cosmos-walter
Member Posts: 700
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted 08-04-2020 06:55 AM
Late Hank Hartsfield was commander of STS-41D and STS-61-A. Being a stamp collector he wanted to carry a single cover on one of these missions. This was denied. The reason is that astronauts are forbidden to carry philatelic items due to Apollo 15 covers incident. To the best of my knowledge first private covers flown onboard a Space Shuttle are from STS-71 – the first Shuttle mission a Russian flew with. Thus it is unlikely that a cover was carried on board STS-7. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3069
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
|
posted 08-04-2020 07:22 AM
As Walter pointed out, NASA took a very hard stand on postal covers being flown on a shuttle by their own astronauts. But of course STS-8 was a different story as the U.S. government (USPS/NASA) were involved in a joint philatelic commercial venture.I believe, though, that STS-71 was not the first time that a Russian cosmonaut flew on a shuttle orbiter vehicle. It was Sergei Krikalev aboard Shuttle Discovery on Mission STS-60 in February 1994, more than a year before STS-71/Atlantis flew two cosmonauts, Solovyev and Budarin, to the Russian space station for the Mir 19 crew. Did Krikalev have any postal covers with him? NASA did not completely restrict cosmonaut activities with possibly carrying postal covers on a space shuttle as they did with their own U.S. astronauts. I have also heard of space mail from the STS-71 cosmonauts while aboard the Mir space station. |
Cozmosis22
Member Posts: 1023
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011
|
posted 08-04-2020 11:50 AM
I am thinking that Krikalev's handlers would have frowned upon Sergei taking anything the least bit controversial onboard; and quite sure that mission commander Bolden ran a tight ship. |
cosmos-walter
Member Posts: 700
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted 08-05-2020 04:26 AM
I never heared about a cover flown on board the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-60 mission. Sergey Krikalov has been no big writer and treated less covers than other cosmonauts during his space flights. Thus I am pretty sure no covers were flown with STS-60. However, 30 covers had been postmarked on board orbital complex MIR on 02/03/1994 to commemorate the launch of STS-60. |
thisismills
Member Posts: 335
From: Michigan
Registered: Mar 2012
|
posted 08-05-2020 02:48 PM
Are you able to post a photo of the STS-7 cover from the seller? It would be interesting to see and understand why they believe it was flown on the mission. |
Apollo-Soyuz
Member Posts: 1231
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004
|
posted 08-11-2020 02:47 PM
I do not think a cover flew on STS-7. I read somewhere and I cannot remember where, one of the sponsors of a getaway special canister that flew on STS-7 also put in the canister some stamps which accompanied the payload. Upon landing back on Earth, the sponsor tried to sell the stamps as flown on STS-7. I believe NASA intervened and the stamps were confiscated. If anybody has further information on this, I would like to hear about it. |
advertisement