posted 06-08-2025 07:26 AM               

Space Cover 809: Mercury to Shuttle — Their last day

There were 166 NASA manned spaceflights in the Mercury (6), Gemini (10), Apollo (15), Skylab (3), ASTP (1) and Space Shuttle (135) programs. This Space Cover of the Week presents covers postmarked on the last day that each of these six programs ended. Five will be covers from the Prime Recovery Ships involved in the ocean recoveries and one a landing cover. Also these covers are autographed by the crews that flew the last spaceflight of each program.

The Mercury Program ended with its final flight (Mercury-Atlas 9) aboard the Prime Recovery Ship USS Kearsarge in 1963; the Gemini Program ended with Gemini-Titan 12 aboard the USS Wasp in 1968; the Apollo Program ended with Apollo 17 aboard the USS Ticonderoga in 1972; the Skylab Program ended with Skylab-4 aboard the USS New Orleans in 1973; the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project ended aboard the USS New Orleans in 1975; and the Space Shuttle Program ended with STS-135 and the landing of Orbiter Atlantis on the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility in 2011.

Above are covers from the MA-9 PRS USS Kearsarge and below the GT-12 PRS USS Wasp.

The top cover is an Apollo 17 USS Ticonderoga PRS cover and below a Skylab-4 USS New Orleans PRS cover.

The top cover is an ASTP launch cover with an official NASA/KSC rubber stamp cachet and autographed by both the US Apollo crew and the Soviet Soyuz crew. Below is a New Orleans PRS cover with the ship's official cachet applied. Of note is that the postmark is dated the day after the recovery, as the ship's post office was closed on recovery day - for a reason I don't remember.

The cover at the top is an STS-135 KSC launch cover and is autographed by the final Space Shuttle crew, and the bottom cover is canceled on the date of the landing of Atlantis, which ended both the STS-135 flight and also the end of the 135-flight Space Shuttle Program.

The very special STS-135 landing cover honors the 30-year Shuttle Program and the five Orbiters that flew the 135 flights.

Concerning the Space Shuttle Program - one of my collecting regrets is not having an STS-1 launch cover canceled again at KSC for the STS-135 landing of Atlantis, from: "We have ignition!" on the first Shuttle launch on STS-1, to "Wheels Stop" on STS-135 - a span of 30 years, which included 21,152 orbits and over 542 million miles around the earth. Any such covers out there?

posted 06-09-2025 07:11 AM               

Concerning Tim's comment about inscriptions added to my covers along with the autographs, I've always liked to have flight-related inscriptions added to autographs.

To accomplish this, I would attach a Post-it note to the cover asking for the astronaut to please sign and I'd add a brief inscription I'd like and certainly thank him/her - it was asking a little extra.

This was successful about 90% of the time and added an extra element to the item signed.

posted 06-12-2025 09:42 AM               

Now continuing with the topic of the final flight and last day in a NASA flight program, here are more covers postmarked on the dates that two very different NASA Programs ended.

The top cover is a Skylab-1 launch cover with an official NASA/KSC rubber stamp cachet, and below is a KSC VIP card. Both are canceled for the Skylab space station's launch by a Saturn V rocket and have an additional cancel for Skylab's last day in orbit on July 11,1979. Skylab's uncontrolled deorbit resulted it its debris being scattered in the Indian Ocean and also south western Australia.

The Skylab space station - Orbital Workshop (OWS) - was launched by a Saturn V rocket on November 14, 1973 and was the last of thirteen Saturn V rocket launches - three were unmanned, with the other ten sending astronauts to the moon.

The two cancels on the cover and card mark two end-of-program events: the final Saturn V launch, and the end of the last part of a Saturn V in orbit - the Saturn V's S-IVB stage was converted into the Skylab Space Station.

This Skylab Program emblem cover, with two Skylab commemorative stamps, was canceled at Cape Canaveral on Skylab's last day in orbit. The cover below was located in the NORAD Skylab Re-entry Data Center at the time of the Skylab reentry.

The Skylab OWS/space station was actually a converted Saturn V's S-IVB third stage, so its last day in orbit also marked the final day and flight of any part of a Saturn V rocket.

However, at least one spent S-IVB third stage is known to still be in earth orbit. In fact, one was detected in September 2002 and is believed to be Apollo 12's third stage. It last left earth orbit in 2003 and may return in the mid-2040's, thus continuing its approximate 40-year orbital cycle. It even has a name: J002E3, aka Apollo 12's Saturn V's S-IVB.

posted 06-13-2025 06:18 PM               

Back to the X-24B - Mike Love piloted twelve X-24B flights, with the top cover he signed being for his last flight. As mentioned, Dick Scobee piloted two X-24B flights, with him signing this cover for his first flight - the X-24B's 32nd of 36 free flights. Scobee also served as one of the B-52 Mothership pilots that carried the X-24B to launch altitude.

Mike Love with 12 X-24B free flights, and John Manke with 16 free flights were the two main X-24B pilots, with four others piloting two flights each:

Dick Scobee, Tom McMurtry, Einar Enevoldson and Bill Dana.

Sadly, both Love and Scobee later lost their lives in flight accidents, with Scobee on STS-51L and Love at Edwards AFB just a few months after the last flight in the X-24B Program.

posted 06-14-2025 04:57 PM               

So covers for Flight 1 of the X-15 (June 8, 1959, glide flight) are, in a word, complicated. We elucidated on this in SCOTW 268. Suffice it to say that Edwards or Edwards AFB postmarked covers for June 8, 1959, don't seem to exist. The closest I've found is below, hand canceled that day at the Los Angeles Airport mail facility, just across the airport tarmac from the North American Aviation plant where the X-15 was built:

And this one was signed by pilot Scott Crossfield.

The last (199th) flight of the X-15 cover is shown below, autographed by pilot Bill Dana.

There was an attempt to get in a 200th flight on December 12, 1968, but it was scrubbed due to weather. If anyone has a scrub cover for that date, please post!