posted 07-27-2025 09:52 AM               

Space Cover 816: Official NASA Cachets with Multiple Cancels

Collectors of space covers are familiar with many of the different cachet makers such as Orbit Covers, Centennial Covers and Spacecraft/Swanson that produced covers for profit. Starting with the launch of SA-10 on July 30, 1965, a new cachet type was introduced — Official NASA cachets (ONCs).

The history of these cachets is well documented and were available for Gemini (starting with Gemini 5), Apollo, Skylab, ASTP and other events such as the launch of Surveyor 3, the first anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, the 10th anniversary of Freedom 7, the launch of Helios 1, the launches of Viking 1 and 2 and the 1966 and 1967 KSC Fire Prevention Week. The majority of these covers have a single KSC machine cancel (MC) or single KSC hand cancel (HC).

But there are other ONC covers with multiple cancels. For example I have ONC covers with the following multiple cancels:

• KSC MC and KSC HC
  
• KSC HC and KSC HC
  
• KSC MC and CC HC
  
• KSC MC and PAFB HC
  
• KSC MC and Houston HC
  
• KSC HC and PAFB HC
  
• Two KSC MCs

There are several variations of these types. For example there are covers with two cancels from the same location on the same day, such as the Apollo 1 cover above with a KSC MC and KSC HC.

There are covers with two cancels from the same location but on different dates, such as the Skylab I (SL-2) cover shown below with a KSC MC on the day of launch on May 25, 1973 and a KSC HC on the day of splashdown on June 22, 1973.

There are covers that are cancelled at one location on one day and from a different location on another day, such as the cover shown below which is cancelled with a KSC MC on the day of launch of the Skylab Orbital Workshop on May 14, 1973 and Cape Canaveral HC on the day it reentered Earth's atmosphere on July 11, 1979.

I also have covers that were cancelled at KSC for the launch of two different, but related missions, such as the cover shown below that has a KSC HC for the launch of Helios 1 on December 10, 1974 and a KSC HC for the launch of Helios 2 on January 15, 1976.

One of the most uncommon ONC double cancelled covers is shown below. It has two KSC machine cancels for the launch of AS-201. It looks like the cover was upside down when it was first cancelled, and when the postal clerk saw that they turned it around and cancelled it again. While there are ONC covers that are intentionally double-cancelled this cover is an example of one that was unintentionally double-cancelled.

I'm sure other collectors have unique multiple cancelled ONC covers that us Astrophilatelists would like to see so I encourage them to post them.

posted 07-29-2025 05:11 PM               

There are dozens more that can be depicted, mostly from Apollo, Skylab, ASTP, and Viking, of which some are identical to Randy's submissions that started this topic theme.

It looks like that most of the Apollo 1 (AS-204) spacecraft tragedy ONC's on Jan. 27, 1967, were perhaps posted a second time because of the original KSC-machine cancel strikes not hitting the top of the postage stamps that had been affixed. Therefore, the postal clerk at the old KSC Headquarters Building post office, of which I have never heard of whom that employee was, used the small red circular double-lined hand cancel on all of the 40 covers. Mine is the same.