posted 08-03-2025 11:06 AM               

Space Cover 817: ASTP world-wide cancels

Continuing with a tribute for Apollo-Soyuz Test Project's 50th anniversary, this Space Cover of the Week will focus on postmarks that honor this first international spaceflight.

The top cover above marks the launch of the Soyuz spacecraft on July 15, 1975, with the stamp's design from a painting by cosmonaut/artist Alexi Leonov, and with the Soviet ASTP cancel from Kaluga, USSR. The cover below has a special circular Houston cancel for the Apollo-Soyuz linkup on July 17. A similar cancel was also used at KSC and is shown below.

Shown here are two machine cancels and a hand stamp cancel. The top cancel is from San Francisco, CA, picturing the Apollo-Soyuz linkup. Below is a slogan cancel from Greenbelt, MD, that honors ASTP and the peaceful uses of outer space. At the bottom is a philatelic cancel issued from the JSC-Spacepex Station in Houston, TX.

The top cover bears a circular link-up cancel from KSC and is autographed by three KSC directors involved in the ASTP mission: Lee Scherer, Miles Ross and Walter Kapriyan. The bottom cover is canceled for the launch of the Soyuz spacecraft with a Soviet ASTP Baikonur cancel. The US ASTP stamp is canceled for the Apollo splashdown, with an add-on cachet affixed.

The Soyuz launch cancel (July 17) and the US Apollo landing cancel (July 24), mark the beginning and end of the Apollo-Soyuz flight program and span their time in space.

The top cover is canceled on July 15, 1975 from Zvezdniy/Star City with a Soyuz ASTP cancel and an impressive stamp showing a Soyuz rocket launch. The cover below is an Artcraft First Day of Issue cover, with an ASTP cancel from Moscow and a pair of the Soviet ASTP stamps.

The cover at the top has an ASTP philatelic pictorial cancel from Sunnyvale, CA, with a special cachet designed by NASA artist Roger Arno. I acquired this cover from cover producer Stan Henderson. The cover below is an Apollo-Soyuz tracking station cover from Madrid, Spain, with an ASTP link-up cancel applied.

The top cover with a large ASTP pictorial cancel is from Gmund, Austria and is canceled for the launch of Apollo-Soyuz with an added impression of the spacecraft linkup. At the bottom is a Soviet air letter sheet canceled from Houston for the link-up. The cover is affixed with a US ASTP stamp and another type of Soviet ASTP stamp.