posted 12-11-2022 10:34 AM               

Space Cover 680: Explorer 1: The US Joins the Space Race

This week's space cover was hand canceled at Port Canaveral on January 31, 1958, and carries a detailed Zaso cachet for the launch of Explorer 1, America's first satellite. It has also been autographed by Dr. James Van Allen, the principal investigator of the onboard cosmic ray detector.

The Army rocket team under Wernher von Braun had experimented with military Redstone missiles carrying upper stages that could nearly reach orbital velocity in the mid 1950's. They knew that adding a fourth stage would reach orbital velocity, but they were told not to do that in favor of the more-civilian-oriented Vanguard satellite effort. However, after the Soviet Union launched Sputniks 1 and 2, and the US suffered the humiliation of the dramatic launch failure of Vanguard TV-3 on December 6, 1957, the US needed a jumpstart to keep up with the Russians. The Army told von Braun to proceed with his efforts using a Redstone with upper stages (also known as Jupiter-C) to orbit a satellite.

The satellite on top of the Jupiter- C would be a simple 31 pound satellite carrying the cosmic ray detector, temperature sensors, and two micrometeorite detectors, and was called Explorer. As shown above, Explorer 1 was successfully launched into orbit the night of January 31, 1958, finally putting the US into the space race. And the cosmic ray detector (under Dr. Van Allen's leadership) provided the first evidence of the existence of radiation belts circling the Earth, now well-known as the Van Allen Belts.

An interesting story about the Van Allen signature: I had a cousin who was about two years older than me and she was going the University in Iowa where Dr. Van Allen was working.  I didn't want to risk mailing that cover to him so I sent it to her and asked her if she could try to get him to sign it for me.  She found out where he lived and went up and rang the doorbell.  He let her in and they conversed for about a half hour and she just loved the opportunity.  He looked at the cover and said, "Oh, this is one of the expensive kind! I hope my signature doesn't ruin it."  And he took it and carefully signed it for her.  She then mailed it back to me and thanked me for giving her such a great opportunity to meet with him.  That told me a little about the kind of man that Dr. Van Allen was.

posted 12-11-2022 10:36 AM               

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Explorer 1, there occurred an Explorer 1 commemorative session at the Wernher von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, AL. The main speakers were four important individuals involved in America's first satellite: James Van Allen; William Pickering (JPL); John Medaris (ABMA); and Eberhard Rees (MSFC) and signed by each.

The second cover's three cancels were applied on the 25th anniversary of Explorer 1: one from Cape Canaveral; another from Patrick AFB. FL; and the third a pictorial cancel also from Cape Canaveral picturing the 80 inch Explorer 1 satellite. Pickering and Allen also nicely signed this cover.

posted 12-11-2022 12:44 PM               

Here is a Patrick AFB machine cancel from the night of the Explorer 1 launch. It features a Flick Cachet, a bit more stylized than Ray's Zaso above. And it shows the Jupiter C flying the wrong direction. But then again, how many people back in early 1958 really knew which way Cape Canaveral launches went?

posted 12-12-2022 05:49 PM               

Bob's four signatures is a perfect fit representing Gen. Medaris as the commanding general of ABMA at the time, Van Allen for designing Explorer 1's science instruments, the first satellite's builder facilities' director Dr. Pickering and key launch vehicle development official Dr. Eberhard Rees. That's the only time I can recall an Explorer 1 cover of any kind signed by four leading Explorer 1/Jupiter-C program leaders all on the same cover.

Great cover, too, that Dennis included an early pioneering-type Flick cachet that I have always liked. I've included a few more vintage Explorer 1 covers with actual liftoff dates from the Cape and Patrick AFB. One of the airmail covers, signed by Dr. Wernher von Braun, was done in the late 1950's from Huntsville, though, not on launch day itself.

Another cover below at top left is a vintage Goldcraft cover signed by Explorer 1's rocket pioneer leader von Braun. For Dennis, at least the Goldcraft cachet design points the Jupiter-C in the right direction from the Cape over the Atlantic Missile Range, even though the flight trajectory is too high.

posted 12-14-2022 06:45 AM               

One of my failures as a long-time space cover collector was not obtaining an Explorer 1 cover, that should be in every serious space cover collector's collection. But Explorer 1 anniversary covers have nicely filled the void.

posted 12-17-2022 06:48 AM               

I still got a few more original Explorer 1 covers with Patrick AFB, mostly with no cachets, and with a few multi-cancels on them.

Regarding multi-signed Explorer 1 covers of any kind, Bob, I do have a couple of anniversary covers together with Van Allen and Pickering, and separate by Medaris along with a couple of other pioneers.

posted 01-01-2024 02:46 PM               

It had to be an exciting era (1957-59) with so many pioneering satellites and other U.S. space achievements at a time when our country was slow in making significant progress in a tough space race competition with the former Soviet Union. America finally answered the call with a bigger and better first Explorer satellite alongside a "beep beep" Sputnik 1 response already in orbit. Even though Russia still had the lead with a dog-carrying Sputnik 2 a few weeks later, but what a time it was that got the U.S. motivated more in later space accomplishments.