posted 03-29-2026 12:14 AM               

Space Cover 851: Who did it and why?

Most "general" space collectors have accumulated hundreds or even thousands of covers into their collections and in doing so have added a few items that just scream out – who made this, and why was it created the way it was?

A perfect example of this is pictured above:

• An unstamped Irvington Hotel (Lakewood, New Jersey) postcard – perfect item to use to create a space cover???? Who came up with this idea?
  
• An Apollo 7 Navy RSC – applied on the right-hand side of the postcard, assume to avoid stamping it over the words on the left-hand side? Where was the postcard sent to get the Apollo 7 Navy rubber stamp applied?
  
• An Apollo 8 Navy RSC – on the left-hand side of the postcard – only place to apply it. Where was the postcard sent to get the Apollo 8 Navy rubber stamp applied? Same location as Apollo 7 request?
  
• Why Apollo 7 and Apollo 8? – Why not Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, for example?
  
• no mailing address, so this had to be mailed twice in outer envelope for the creator to receive the postcard.
  
• Again, since there is no postmark, there is no indication where the creator sent (multiple times) the postcard to obtain the Navy RSCs?

Who came up with this idea and created it? Why use a non-space postcard to get the cachets? As a collector, you would think a blank envelope would have been a better choice. Use a blank #10 or larger envelope and be able to add additional mission recovery cachets, since obviously, requests worked for Apollo 7 and 8.

We will never know the answers, but it does make for a good conversation piece!

Let's see some of your "why was it done this way" items in your collection.