Space Cover 868: Lunar Post Office Turns 55This past week or so marked the 55th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 15. This was the first of the J-Series missions offering extended stays on the lunar surface and the lunar rover for travelling extended distances from the landing site. Dave Scott, Jim Irwin and Al Worden flew a highly successful mission with the additional firsts of landing near Hadley Rille, conducting the first stand-up EVA through the lunar module's upper hatch shortly after landing, and the first deep-space EVA to collect film and experiments packages on the way home.
Apollo 15's most important first for us space cover collectors is that they established the first post office on the lunar surface. The US Postal Service released a pair of stamps honoring United States In Space A Decade Of Achievement on August 2, 1971 (Scott 1434-5). First Day ceremonies were held in Houston, Huntsville and Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 15 was scheduled to lift off from the lunar surface on that date and the USPS and NASA cooperated in having Dave Scott cancel the stamps shortly before leaving the lunar surface.
The first cover pictured (above) was produced by artist Carl Swanson and Space Craft Covers showing Dave Scott cancelling the cover with the stamps on the lunar surface. This was televised and the world got to watch Dave Scott play lunar postmaster.
Space Craft Covers also had as part of their regular issues Apollo 15 Lunar Lift-off covers. These were postmarked at Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center and Patrick AFB. These covers all received the Decade Of Achievement stamps making them unofficial first day covers. Picture #2 shows the regular KSC cancel on the regular issue lunar lift-off cacheted cover.
The third cover was a multi-year quest for me to find. I was corresponding with Carl Swanson back in the early 1980's asking him many questions about Space Craft Covers. He was gracious with his answers for this teenager with hand-written letters. I enjoyed reading his answers! He also sent me a list of what he considered a "complete set" of SCC.
This was mostly just the regular issue covers and none of the specials we know and love today. But on the list was a cover listed as "Apollo-15 Moon Lift-Off FDC". When I asked Carl about this cover he explained it was the regular issue lift-off cover but with the "First Day Of Issue" KSC cancel.
My quest to find this cover began. At stamp shows in addition to looking through every box of space covers, I looked through every box of first day covers looking for first day covers for 1434-1435. It took 20 years to finally find it at a random stamp show in New Jersey. Makes for a great story for such a random-looking cover!
posted 08-09-2026 10:30 AM
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