posted 01-18-2026 08:41 AM               

Space Cover 841: My Favorite Prime Recovery Ship Covers

My Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) cover collection pales in comparison to those of many others here, but I only needed a limited number of PRS covers for my crew signed cover collection. The ones shown here are my favorites and two or three are of special note.

This Mercury-Atlas 6 PRS cover, autographed by John Glenn and the ship's captain, is unusual in that it has no glue stains on the adhesive label as is typical with these covers. This came from a Space Unit auction in 1986 for $110 and is from the collection of pioneer collector Harry Gordon.

The Mercury-Atlas 7 PRS cover is also of special note because of several factors: it's a printed cachet Captain's Cover; it originated from another pioneer collector, Donald Schultz; it has an excellent cancel and appropriate Mercury stamp; and is autographed by Scott Carpenter. This is almost identical to the one pictured on page 46 in Schultz's excellent "Project Mercury...One Step Into Space" booklet.

This Gemini-Titan 12 PRS cover serves as an great example of a PRS cover, having an appropriate US flag stamp with a clear USS Wasp machine cancel; well-applied GT-12 PRS rubber stamp cachet; a small Beck circular stamp; and nicely signed by the crew of Lovell and Aldrin.

I have very few Beck printed cachet covers and this is my favorite. Besides exhibiting an excellent Wally Schirra autograph and inscription, this Apollo 7 PRS cover has the added features of a handsome Beck multi-colored Apollo 7 US Navy Recovery Force printed cachet, a well-applied USS Essex hand stamp cancel and a colorful pair of stamps.

This Apollo 13 USS Iwo Jima PRS cover serves as an ideal example of an Apollo PRS cover: It has an appropriate Apollo 8 stamp; canceled with a well-applied USS Iwo Jima hand stamp cancel; the US Navy Recovery Force rubber stamp cachet is perfectly applied; and was autographed well by the crew of Lovell, Haise and Swigert.

I do regret that I didn't pursue PRS covers better, but am happy with those I have. Others here have exceptional PRS cover collections.

posted 01-18-2026 03:59 PM               

I recently moved, and most of my covers are still in boxes. However I was able to find a few crew-signed PRS covers, such as a scarce USS Pierce cover (with the ship’s RSC on the back) signed by Scott Carpenter. Although the USS Pierce was not the PRS for MA-7 it did recover the Aurora 7 spacecraft and, along with the USS Intrepid cover that Bob shows in his posting, is highly sought after by PRS cover collectors looking to complete their PRS collection. The USS Pierce/USS Intrepid covers for MA-7 are similar to the USS Randolph/USS Noa covers for MA-6 in that both ships had ‘primary-type’ roles in recovering the astronaut and the spacecraft.

I also located crew-signed covers for Gemini 10, Apollo 10 and Apollo 13. All of these covers are in mint condition with great cancellations, cachets and signatures, especially the crew-signed Apollo 13 cover that also has the signatures of the Commanding Officer of the USS Iwo Jima and the pilot of the helicopter that recovered the crew.

posted 01-18-2026 07:40 PM               

Above is the Captain's Cover for Gordon Cooper's MA-9 flight. These are incredibly hard to find, and I feel lucky to have had this practically dropped in my lap. Steve Durst and I were at Ed Bizub's (Eddie's dad) house 25ish years ago and Ed offered this to us. Steve passed on buying it, so yours truly grabbed it in a heartbeat.

And here is an Apollo 11 Captain's Cover autographed by C.J. Seiberlich, the Captain of the Hornet for the Apollo 11 (and 12) recovery. Seiberlich spoke at a Space Unit get-together at a stamp show 20-25 years ago and graciously signed this.

posted 01-19-2026 07:29 AM               

The first cover is an Apollo 12 Captain's covers signed by the Apollo 12 crew and the Captain of the USS Hornet. The second cover is an Apollo 11 beck cover signed by the helo crew members. Last but not least is a Beck USS Iwo Jima cover signed by the helo crew members. Some of my favorite covers.

posted 01-19-2026 06:47 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by micropooz:
Seiberlich spoke at a Space Unit get-together at a stamp show 20-25 years ago and graciously signed this.

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posted 01-22-2026 03:39 PM               

We've displayed some super Prime Recovery Ship covers, both unsigned and signed, and to continue with the PRS cover theme, I've listed some PRS-related space cover collecting possibilities and challenges.

• To start, a complete set of unsigned PRS covers for the 31 Mercury-Gemini- Apollo-Skylab flights would be a significant and impressive achievement. Some collectors here have certainly achieved that goal.

• Next, now a complete set of unsigned launch covers for the 31 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flights, with, ideally, Swanson/Spacecraft (or "Orbit") covers for MR-3 thru GT-4 and then with GT-5, continue with official NASA/KSC launch covers (which began with GT-5) to complete the set, ending with Apollo-Soyuz and totaling 62 covers.

• Now, a monster step up and the ultimate Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab set: combining the launch and PRS covers together in pairs - and all crew signed! That would result in a set of 62 crew signed covers: 31 crew signed Swanson, or "Orbit", and NASA-KSC official cacheted launch covers, and 31 PRS crew signed covers.

Located in two SAFE First Day Cover albums, I have my launch/PRS crew signed covers housed in pairs, but far from complete. A page for GT-11 from that collection is shown here as an example and to show how one collector displays his far-from-complete launch/PRS crew signed cover collection (with unsigned covers to fill in most of the gaps) - with a launch cover at the top and a PRS cover below from MR-3 to ASTP.

posted 01-23-2026 09:44 AM               

Here are two more of my favorites. The first is a GT-6 Captain's cover signed by the crew. The second is an Apollo 12 Captain's cover signed by the prime recovery helo crew members.