posted 04-02-2025 05:01 PM               

Space Cover 799: First Titan/Centaur Combination Launch

2025 is the 50th anniversary year of the launch of the two Viking Mars landers, with successful Mars landings occurring in 1976.

The top cover is a 1974 Viking-associated Bob Whitney printed cachet cover that marks the unsuccessful launch of a Titan/Centaur rocket intended as a "Proof Flight" to verify its use as a launch vehicle for both Vikings 1 and 2. This first launch of the Titan/Centaur combination failed, but two other Titan/Centaurs preformed well and sent both Vikings 1 and 2 on their long voyages to the surface of Mars.

The bottom cover, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Stamp Club, marks the successful launch of Viking 1, with a cancel from Pasadena, CA, and a beautiful cachet picturing the Viking emblem. An appropriate Mariner 10-Venus/Mercury stamp enhances this impressive Viking cover.

1975 and 1976 were two significant years in space exploration history and resulted in many great covers for us space collectors. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project occurred in July of 1975, and Vikings 1 and 2 both landed safely on Mars in 1976. We have "covered" both historic space events well with our prior Space Cover of the Week entries.

posted 04-05-2025 02:11 PM               

As mentioned, the Proof Flight failed but the two following Titan-Centaur launches went well and resulted in two landers operating on Mars - and Viking Orbiters above. It was a great time to be a space fan and certainly to be a space cover collector.

Here are two Centennial covers for the Titan/Centaur launch with the top cover signed by the Titan III Project Manager and the other signed by the Centaur Program Manager at General Dynamics Corp.

The top cover is signed by Thomas A. Mutch, the Viking Lander Imaging Team leader. Tragically, as the news clipping describes, he died in an avalanche about 4 years after Viking while climbing a mountain in the Himalayas.