Orbit issue 102 (June 2014)

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Editorial

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY

Orbit’s new look and feel, which I hope you like, is down to necessity and not a desire to spend your subscription monies recklessly, I assure you !

Issue No 102 June 2014 Patron: Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

When I retired from my post at Elgin High School in August 2008 I lost the facility to run off and staple our journal myself as I had done since 1995. I then approached the printing department of our local Moray Council who as a kindness to me—and because I was still continuing to work as a supply teacher in local schools which I am still doing—agreed to publish Orbit in the A3 saddle stitched format it has had since then. Not only was this a palpable improvement in the style of presentation but was it was done for a very modest charge and not at a commercial state.

COMMITTEE Chairman Ian Ridpath, 48 Otho Court, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 8PY (E-mail : ian@ianridpath.com) Chairman Emeritus : Margaret Morris, 30 Hilltree Court, Fenwick Rd, Giffnock, Glasgow G46 6AA (E-mail: m382morris@btinternet.com)

Hon. Secretary: Brian J.Lockyer, 21, Exford Close,Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset BS23 4RE (E-mail : b.lockyer365@btinternet.com)

However the Council has now decided not to continue with this kind of favour work and this issue has been produced by a commercial printer in Elgin at a markedly higher cost, as you’d expect. This in due course will impact on our next balance sheet—see Eve Archer’s report on page 13 of this issue and the committee will now have to consider subscription rates in advance of requests for subscription renewal for 2014/15 which will accompany the October issue.

Hon .Treasurer: Eve Archer, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Fochabers, Moray.

Scotland IV32 7LE (E-mail: orbitmag@aol.com)

Orbit : Editor Jeff Dugdale, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Fochabers, Moray.

Scotland IV32 7LE (E-mail: jefforbited@aol.com)

Webmaster Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Road, Walkinstown, Dublin 12 (E-mail: dclarke36@gmail.com)

Postal Auction Organiser: David Saunders, 42 Burnet Road, Bradwell, Great Yarmouth. NR31 8SL. (E-mail davidsaunders1@hotmail.co.uk)

Overseas Representatives: Australia: Charles Bromser, 37 Bridport Street, Melbourne 3205.

Belgium : Jűrgen P. Esders, Rue Paul Devigne 21-27, Boite 6, 1030 Bruxelles Eire:Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Rd, Walkinstown. Dublin 12.

France: Jean-Louis Lafon, 23 Rue de Mercantour, 78310 Maurepas Russia: Mikhail Vorobyov, 31-12 Krupskaya Str, Kostroma United States: Dr Ben Ramkissoon, Linda Valley Villa #236 11075 Benton Street Loma Linda CA 92354-3182

On a happier note I was very pleased with the comments made on Orbit which was awarded a trophy at the Scottish Philatelic Congress last month—see reports and pictures in this edition. You will also note that Bob Catto and I have been spreading the astrophilatelic gospel with displays at STAMPEX and the July issue of STAMP Magazine will contain my article on the Interkosmos series of flights.

As time takes it toll on our membership, we do need to attract new members and all such methods of publicity play their part in doing that. As is evident at stamp shows philately is definitely a “silver” hobby with very few young people in attendance, but it is also so relaxing and rewarding that those who are not yet into do not know what they are missing out on. Please continue to do your bit to bring others into our wonderful pastime.

JD

Life Members: UK - George Spiteri, Ian Ridpath, Margaret Morris, Michael Packham, Jillian Wood. Derek Clarke (Eire,) Charles Bromser (Australia.) Tom Baughn (U.S.A.,) Ross Smith (Australia,) Vincent Leung Wing Sing (Hong Kong.)

www.astrospacestampsociety.com

Copy Deadline for the October 2014 issue is September 14th by which time all material intended for publication should be with the Editor.

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Members in UK—£15 in Europe (EU and non-EU) - €30

© Copyright 2014 The Astro Space Stamp Society. No article contained herein may be reproduced without prior permission of the Author and the Society.

Elsewhere - $45 equivalent Juniors (under 18) £6.50

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UP IN SMOKE : THE PIONEERS OF ROCKET MAIL A version of this article by guest contributor John Winchester (left), a prolific contributor to the British glossy STAMP Magazine, first appeared in its April 2014 edition and is produced by kind permission of John and Editor Guy Thomas.

In less than twenty years rockets progressed from simple fireworks to long-range ballistic missiles, but delivering the mail by rocket proved a little more elusive!

A 13th century Chinese “fire arrow” military rocket, depicted on a 20th century Cinderella produced by German rocket mail pioneer Gerhard Zucker

Guns and rockets Ancient Chinese civilisation gave the world four great inventions, papermaking, printing, the compass and a recipe for making gunpowder. Blending charcoal, saltpetre and sulphur to create an explosive black powder enabled Chinese forces to project rockets, described as “arrows of flying fire,” at terrified Mongolian invaders who entered China in 1232.

But the secret of gunpowder didn’t remain in Chinese hands for long. Arab traders carried it along the Silk Road to reach Europe before 1400 and before long the British were manufacturing it, safe within the confines of the Tower of London, all the while seeking new applications for their deadly product.

This came in the form of guns, which made their appearance in Europe towards the end of the 14th century. Developments in rocketry evolved more slowly, but war rockets, with a range of 1,000 metres, were maintained by the Indian ruler Tipu Sultan during the eighteenth century and when British forces stormed his heavily defended fortress during the Battle of Seringapatam, he ordered his rocketeers to discharge their deadly, iron clad 1974 India stamp missiles across the battlefield, like a commemorating shower of meteorites. Colonel (later Sir) Tipu Sultan

American silk cover of 1979 commemorating Congreve on the occasion of his induction into the International Space Hall of Fame.

William Congreve examined some of these captured missiles and from them designed the famous Congreve rocket, used so effectively by the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The success of rockets opened a debate as to whether they, or artillery, gave the greatest military might, but artillery was then in its infancy, whereas black powder rockets had reached their apogee and they gradually receded as a weapon of war as the nineteenth century progressed.

Lofty ambitions As the rocket declined as a weapon of war, so came the applications of rocketry to more peaceful applications. The power of a rocket to carry objects aloft always held fascination and in the 1830s, a Parisian rocket maker named Claude Ruggieri entertained crowds on the Champs de Mars by using rockets to fire small animals that were then parachuted back to earth. On one particular day, French police had to intervene when Ruggieri’s latest demonstration involved the planned ascent of an eleven year-old boy! His experiment ushered in a period of ever more fanciful schemes to send humans into space. It also created some mind-boggling science fiction, such as H.G. Wells 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. One sixteen year old American boy, reading the story, became so inspired that he resolved to devote his talents to rocket research. His name was Robert Hutchings Goddard and one day he would become known as “the father of modern rocketry.” (USA 1964)

High hopes As the last shots of the Great War died away, a renaissance in rocket development took place. Robert Goddard, now a physicist and inventor, had already been granted patents for a multi-stage rocket and liquid fuel propulsion. In 1919 he formulated his ideas in a small pamphlet entitled A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitude. From a mass of applied physics and mathematical calculation came the argument that mankind possesses the potential for travel into space 3

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Goddard with liquid fuelled rocket at Auburn, Mass in 1926 and a photo showing one of his rockets being transported to the launch site at Roswell New Mexico c 1930!

Registered postcard carried on Schmiedl’s V-12 rocket flight of July 25 1932, addressed to Berlin, franked with one imprinted 10g and adhesive 30g Austrian stamps, three Schmiedl “Raketen Flugpost” labels with manuscript serial numbers (see also bottom of column) and two “V-12” handstamped cachets. beyond the range of balloons. Goddard’s notion captured

public imagination and in 1920 it made front-page news in the New York Times. Goddard, however, was much more that a theorist and in 1926 he put his calculations to the test in a series of rocket launches. At a farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, his first rocket “Nell,” rose to a height of just 12m, landing in a cabbage patch, some 56m away. It was a modest beginning, but Goddard was undaunted, going on to perform a series of thirty-four launches, achieving a height of 2.6km and a maximum speed of 885 km/hr. He was a visionary, justly commemorated on a U.S. stamp in 1964, but like his recognition the full potential of rocket capabilities was slow to arrive in America. It was left to others to develop the potential of rocket power, particularly in applications that involved transporting mail and in this arena there is only one contender, the Austrian engineer and pioneer of rocket mail, Friedrich Schmiedl.

Up and away Schmiedl, a civil engineer, had a more applied view than the loftier visions of Robert Goddard. He became interested in the concept of rocket communication between remote mountain communities, which might be separated by a day’s trek on foot. His first experiment used a stratospheric balloon, which reached a height of 18km, taking measurements of air pressure and wind speed. The Austrian Government had

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refused financial assistance for his work, so he decided to introduce a consignment of two hundred lightweight philatelic covers, which could be sold to cover the cost.

Each cover carried an orange and black triangular label, inscribed Hochflugpost 3 Groschen, in addition to an Austrian 25 groschen stamp and a commemorative cachet.

The covers were postmarked at the Graz post office with the date June 10th 1928 and today are in great demand.

Schmiedl tried to fire rockets remotely from the gondola of the balloon, but met with little success. He decided to concentrate on ground launches and parachute recovery of transported mail. His rockets were prefixed with the letter “V,” for Versuchsrakete (experimental rocket) and in 1930 V -3 to V-6 trials were carried out, conveying a few personal messages to friends. It wasn’t until February 2nd 1930 that a genuine rocket mail flight took place, with the launch of rocket V-7, from the summit of Schöckl to Sankt Radegund in the valley below. For this flight Schmiedl received 102 covers and cards, some of which carried a 10groschen Austrian “manuscript stamp,” individually numbered and inscribed in his own hand, as shown right.

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Tiling’s successor, the German inventor Gerhardt Zucker, (left) tried to ingratiate himself with Hitler by staging rocket flights for the 1934 Winter Relief Fund. In an increasingly unstable political climate, Zucker was fortunate to escape to Britain a few weeks later to attend Apex, the Air Post Exhibition, taking place at the Royal Horticultural Hall. Zucker exhibited rocket-flown covers from the Winter Relief programme, but his plan to stage an Apex rocket flight was thwarted when the British Customs refused to allow his rocket mail labels into the country. In the following month he travelled to the Sussex Downs, where he overprinted surplus Apex labels with the words “ROCKET POST – First British Flight” and carried out successful firings, but Zucker felt he needed more rugged scenery to test his rocket’s capabilities and in July 1934, he departed for the Outer Hebrides.

Rise and fall Schmiedl (pictured right) soon found that his covers could be officially accepted at the local post office, which gave them greater collectability. In September 1931 he began a new R-1 flight from Hoch Trötsch to Semriach, carrying 333 letters and 36 Registered items of mail. During 1932 and in the first three months of 1933, resumed V flights carried a total of 1,162 letters and 525 Registered items of mail, bearing a bewildering array of rocket mail cachets and labels, to the delight of a new breed of collector. Schmiedl covers generally feature one of his distinctive rocket post labels, inscribed Raketen Flugpost, together with a distinctive rocket cachet, giving the rocket identity. As the label was still unofficial, conventional Austrian stamps were also required on the cover.

Schmiedl was making progress, but sinister developments were taking place on the Continent. In 1933 Hitler became Chancellor in a Nazi-Nationalist coalition and rocket development became an increasingly sensitive issue. The new Austrian Government of Kurt Schuschnigg forced Schmiedl to suspend his flights and destroy the rocketlaunching site. He continued until 1935, but it was the end of a chapter for Austrian rocket mail.

Tragedy in the Fatherland Schmiedl’s wasn’t alone in his ambition to see rocket mail flights in Europe. The German engineer Reinhold Tiling appeared from obscurity in 1931 with a finished 2m rocket, capable of extending two tail fins during flight to become a glider. It was a sophisticated advance and Tiling hoped that one day it could carry mail across the English Channel, but then tragedy struck. Late one night in 1933, Tiling was killed when 40lb of powder he was compressing into tablets suddenly exploded in his laboratory.

Winter Relief Fund flown cover (January 29th 1934) signed by Zucker franked with a tête-bêche gutter pair of German definitives “Deutscher Raketenflug” labels, two flight cachets and a swastika cachet in purple suggesting official blessing.

Western Isles fiasco The small, rugged island of Scarp is separated from Harris by just 500m of ocean. It was across this water that Zucker planned to send his rocket, carrying 1,200 items of mail, including letters addressed to King George V and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. Two different vignettes were prepared for the flight, a green label, sold at 2/6d, which

Tiling with his postal rocket which first carried mail in April 1931.

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covered the printed paper rate and a 5/- red label, for sealed letters. On July 28th 1934, the day of the launch, several hundred people gathered on the beach, including the island’s population of 120 and the Head Postmaster of the region.

At the appointed time Zucker pressed the electronic start button and there was a huge explosion. The smoke cleared to reveal a shattered rocket and charred letters blowing along the beach. The catastrophe was blamed on fuel failure, but after 793 letters were recovered, Zucker announced they would be re-launched, this time from Harris, at the end of July. On the day of the second attempt the rescued letters and an additional 142 new items were made ready, but once again the rocket exploded. The Inverness Courier remarked cynically that one fragment of rocket did actually find its way to the target zone! Red-faced, but with the mail intact, Zucker decided to call it a day and he headed south to Lymington, where he planned a new launch to the Isle of Wight. Unused Western Isles labels were overprinted “ISLE OF WIGHT- FIRST FLIGHT.” This time he met with more success and with confidence restored, he returned to Europe, where he conducted rocket flights in several other countries, before the Nazi party placed a ban on such activities and he became a conscript in the Nazi rocket programme.

Rockets galore 1934 was also a milestone for a rather more exotic rocket launch, the Indian mail flights devised by Dr. Stephen Taylor-Smith (known as Stephen Smith), the Secretary of the Indian Airmail Society. Smith received enthusiastic government support for his work, even though his first ship to shore mail launch, on September 30th 1934, resulted in a spectacular mid-air explosion. His rocket, purchased from the Oriental Rocket Company of Calcutta, sent 143 covers into the air like a burst of confetti, but 140 were recovered and imaginatively cancelled by the nearby lighthouse keeper at Saugor.

From a total of 270 Stephen Smith rocket flights, about 80 carried mail, as well as a bewildering array of other items, such as parcels, food relief, miniature newspapers and even live animals. The Silver Jubilee “Rocketgram” covers of March to June 1935 were particularly successful, proclaiming “A Loyal Message Flashed Across the Skies” and Smith’s achievements were recognised in 1992, when India issued a stamp celebrating the centenary of his birth

Stephen Smith signed items

Above London Air Post Exhibition (Apex) souvenir overprinted “Rocket Post/First British Flight”.

Western Isles Rocket Post labels overprinted for Isle of Wight launch.

Apex label overprinted for postcards but never carried.

Signed cover for Sussex Downs trial firing with Brighton machine cancel.

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1937 Coronation Rocket stamp and 1992 India stamp for Stephen Smith

Top: Flown Komeet P8 cover , December 1934 Below :Numbered and signed P9 Meteor cover of December 4th 1934

Roberti in glasses centre supervising the unloading of his P9 Meteor rocket on the beach at Katwijk-aan-Zee

The great rocket racket A more dubious rocket pioneer, who also came to prominence in 1934, was the Dutchman Karel Roberti, an enigmatic character whose origins were as obscure as the launches he conducted. His first flight began on the shores of Katwijk-aan-Zee on December 6th, with a rocket named P8 “Komeet,” which crashed and exploded. Undaunted, Roberti immediately launched P9 “Meteor,” which suffered the same fate (see photo below) , singeing most of the 200 special letters it carried.

Below: Signed cover from Roberti’s planned but unlaunched P28 La Douce cross-Channel flight from Calais to Dover on September 13, 1935. In addition to the French stamps, the envelope bears a perforated Cinderella, pictorial cancels in blue and the bold overprint explaining the prohibition on the flight by French authorities.

themselves. His publicity machine depicted postcards of his image superimposed against vast rockets that did not exist.

He began a dubious association with the stamp dealer

Roberti’s early rockets were purchased from the fireworks producer A.J. Kat in Leiden, for he was more interested in the philatelic profit than improvements in the rockets 7

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Gerard Thoolen, who advertised Roberti covers worldwide and charged high prices to collectors. In 1935 their activities were highlighted in the Dutch philatelic press as “The Rocket Post Swindle.” As a result, Roberti made a quick exit from the Netherlands, conducting subsequent launches in Belgium and Luxembourg, but his plan to send a rocket from Calais to Dover in 1935 was considered one launch too many and quickly suppressed by the French Minister of the Interior. Soon after, Roberti vanished into obscurity, much in the manner of his arrival.

Roberti shown in inset beside one of his fantasy rockets on a Barbara card

Far flung launches As war in Europe edged ever nearer, rocket launches in far-away places began to make their mark. The Australian Rocket Society, under the leadership of Alan Young, (pictured right) announced a Royal Silver Jubilee Rocket flight across Brisbane Harbour on October 28th 1935.

The event had to be postponed until the following February and even then the rocket “Orion” fell short of the target and the transported mail suffered water damage.

Undaunted, Alan Young was back again in 1937 with a Coronation Day rocket, using Official First Day Covers to commemorate the event.

Meanwhile America had resumed an interest in rocketry and after some amateur launches in the early part of the decade, the “First American Rocket Airplane Launch” was announced for February 9th 1936. This was the brainchild of the wealthy stamp dealer Frido W. Kessler and it involved a winged mail rocket called “Gloria.” Special multicoloured stamps were printed for the occasion and advertisements placed in the philatelic press. The flight, across frozen Greenwood Lake, linked New York with New Jersey and drew a crown of 500.

Unhappily the extreme conditions froze the launch cables and “Gloria” did little more than drop from the end of the catapult. A second attempt was planned for two weeks later and this time the rocket climbed, veered to the left and crashed to the ground, just across the New Jersey border! It had been an achievement of sorts, but the rocket mail still required a conventional U.S. stamp for carriage.

Australian Rocket Society Silver Jubilee cover for Alan Young’s flight postponed from October 28th 1935 till February 24th 1936 .

Below: Official fdc for 1937 definitives depicting the new King and Queen carried on A.R.S. Coronation Day flight (May 10th) signed by Alan Young.

Frido Kessler’s American team prepare to launch their rocket Gloria from a catapult on a frozen lake in New York state in 1936

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Pictorial souvenir cover from Kessler’s flight with green cachet dated February 9th and a 1c definitive eventually postmarked in Hewitt, N.J. on February 23rd.

Below, a 1939 “barber-pole” cover addressed to a New York stamp dealer bearing the 10c airmail with its “Experimento del Cohete Postal, overprinted “Año del 1939” and October 15 pictorial cachet.

1989 Cuba Cosmonautics Day set showing early mail rockets and covers: 1c shows Alan Young’s Zodiac (1934) 3c Stephen Smith’s Saugor flight (1934) 5c Zucker’s Sussex trials (1934) 10c Karel Roberti’s Icarus from 1935 40c Roberti’s La Douce from 1935 50c Cuba’s Marilyn C-1 (1939)

It would be three more years before Cuban experimental rocket tests, set up near Havana, actually generated a postage stamp that would be officially listed in the stamp catalogues. This Air stamp, overprinted “Experimento del Cohete Postal, Año de 1939,” marked a philatelic milestone, issued at the moment war erupted in Europe.

In just five years V-1 flying bombs would cross the Channel and disgorge propaganda leaflets on the British public, much as Friedrich Schmiedl peaceably envisaged for his mail a decade earlier. War rockets had reached a level of sophistication unequalled by rocket mail developments and in the decades that followed the race into space confined the experiments of the rocket mail pioneers to a quaint, but undeniably fascinating, corner of history.

Sorry Roberta !

Our “comprehensive” survey of doctors who flew on the shuttle, published in our 100th edition omitted Canadian Roberta Bondar, who spent eight days in space on the STS-42 IML-1 mission in January 1992 and for whom there is a dedicated stamp. Bondar also appears in the 2010 Malawi crew photo series and in the Ukrainian post cover (first issued in 2008) with a Women in Space cancel as opposite.

Bondar graduated from Sir James Dunn High School in Sault Ste. Marie, and holds a Bachelor of Science in zoology and agriculture from the University of Guelph (1968), a Master of Science in experimental pathology from the University of Western Ontario (1971), a Doctor of Philosophy in neuroscience from the University of Toronto (1974), and a Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University (1977).

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Conrad Haas : A Man Born Before his Time Bert van Eijck tells the remarkable story of a rocket pioneer who came out of the Middle Ages !

bullet is not fired, the gunpowder is not burned or wet, so the prince keeps his money, the arsenal master his life; that is the advice Conrad Haas gives.”

Philately We are all fascinated by astrophilately. We study the history of space and collect all the philatelic objects we can find. Some of us study the past too and know all about famous rocket pioneers like Tsiolkovsky (USSR), Goddard (USA), Von Braun (Germany) and so many others, less prominent. But the story I am going to tell here goes five centuries back. And I am pretty sure only a very few of us ASSS members have ever heard of him.

His name: CONRAD HAAS and—yes ! - he lived from 1509 till 1576.

The first philatelic item depicting Conrad Haas is a postal cancellation on July 5, 1987 used in Medias, Romania at the exhibition Cosmofila. On the envelope and cancel we see three multi-stage rockets, described and illustrated by Haas in his book.

In 1966 Spain’s capital Madrid was host to the 17th Congress of IAF (International Astronautical Federation). One of the speakers was a professor Elie Carofoli with connections in Romania. He told the astonished delegates that three years earlier, in 1963, an engineer called Doru Todericiu had uncovered a manuscript in the national archive of a town called Sibiu with the technical details of rocket construction and explaining the working principles of a rocket. The book of 282-pages was 500 years old and was beautiful illustrated.

The author: Conrad Haas.

Conrad Haas was born in 1509 in Dornbach, now part of Austria’s capital Vienna. He served as a guardsman in the Artillery of the Imperial Court of Vienna and later became commandant of an artillery barracks. Between 1529 and 1569 he wrote a book in German in which he described rocket technology, involving the combination of fireworks and weapons technology.

Haas described in his “Kunstbuch”, Manual of Techniques, many rocket types, including the multi-stage rocket, clustered rockets and the idea of modern spacecraft. His work also dealt with different fuel mixtures using liquid fuel, Seven years later the same rockets were used in the design of an envelope in Arad 13.10.1994 with a special Haas cancel. and introduced delta-shape fins and bell-shaped nozzles.

There are indications that Haas actually did perform experiments with, for example, staged rockets. However these inventions and ideas were not passed on and had to be re-invented bit by bit, starting more than hundred years after Haas’ death in 1576 in Hermannstadt, now called Sibiu, where he spent the latter years of his life.

In 1989 Romania Post issued a special stamp for Conrad Haas, showing his portrait (with beard) and a picture of his so-called ‘Flying House’, a first intuitive idea and drawing of a space station.

In the last paragraph of his chapter on the military use of rockets Haas wrote, translated: “But my advice is for more Suring the 1990s I had a philatelic pen friend in Romania, peace and no war, leaving the rifles calmly in storage, so the Prof. Nicolau Stefan from Botosani. In November 1990 there was an international philatelic exhibition in his hometown, 10

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named Interastrofilex’90. He was so kind to send me a ‘carte postala’ with Conrad Haas on a stamp, postal cancel and card illustrations, shownright But the nicest philatelic trophies are three postal stationery cards with imprinted stamp and with the illustrations of Conrad Haas himself and descriptions of his rockets from his manuscript, all with postal Haas cancels.

I guess very few of you have ever seen these rare items.

If there are members interested, all the philatelic items shown in this article, are for sale in the next auction of our society, for the benefit of our ASSS. So let the Editor know if you are interested.

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Kazimierz Siemienowicz—Genius General Before the discovery of the manuscript from Conrad Haas in 1963 in Romania – see previous pages – another book on pyrotechnics and rocketry was highly regarded for many years by experts throughout Europe, reveals Bert van Eijck.

The author is the Polish artillery specialist KAZIMIERZ SIEMIENOWICZ. His work in Latin is titled “Artis Magnae Artilleriae Pars Prima” (Great Art of Artillery Part One), It was first published in 1650 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, by Jan Jansson. The book about fireworks and rockets had the first description of multi-stage rockets: shown right is a drawing of such a rocket from his book. It was translated in French in 1651, German in 1676, English and Dutch in 1729 and finally in Polish in 1963.

For two centuries this work was used in Europe as a basic artillery manual. It contains a large chapter on calibre, construction, production and properties of rockets, including multi-stage rockets, batteries of rockets and rockets with delta-wing stabilizers.

expertise to several battles Siemienowicz published his noble work in Amsterdam, spending some time there. Very soon it became a standard work.

Siemienowicz promised in his book a Second Part “containing all of our current knowledge in pyrotechnic invention.” It is rumored that he wrote this second part before his death and that he was killed by members of the metallurgy-gunsmith-pyrotechnics guilds, who were opposed to him publishing a book about their secrets, and that they hid or even destroyed the manuscript of the second part. Nevertheless his death was a complete mystery of which no details remain.

But what is well-known is the bold statement Siemienowicz made in his Part One. He considered the use of poison gases dishonourable. In his work he wrote: “and most of all, they shall not construct any poisoned globes, nor other sorts of pyrobolic inventions, in which he shall introduce no poison whatsoever, besides which, they shall never employ them for the ruin and destruction of men, because the first inventors of our art thought such actions as unjust among themselves as unworthy of a man of heart and a real soldier.”

Kazimierz Siemienowicz: a Genius General, another man far ahead of his time.

50 litas Commemorative coin of Lithuania dedicated to the 350th anniversary of Artis Magnae Artillerias showing a deltawing rocket concept from Siemienowicz’s book, which also appears on the Souvenir sheet fpr Interkosmos 1978 : First Polish Kosmonaut Hermaszewski

Who was this Genius?

Kazimierz Siemienowicz was born about 1600 and died around 1651. No historian knows for sure hence the question marks after these dates on the special stamp from Belarus (White Russia) issued in 1995 for him There are also questions where he was born and what his nationality was.: Lithuanian or Belarussian. Possibly he was Polish because he became a general in the Polish army.

His family bore the Ostojo Coat of Arms with military service traditions. So it was natural, from his childhood for Kazimierz to be fascinated by artillery. He studied many sciences to increase his knowledge on mathematics, mechanics, hydraulics, optics and tactics both scientific schools in Lithuania and Belarussia.

As a military man he fought in many battles and wars in Europe as gunsmith, engineer, artillery specialist and pioneer of rocketry. He was sent by his king Wladyslaw IV to The Netherlands to serve in the army of Duke Frederick Henry of Orange during the war with Spain. After contributing his 12

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Manuscript “Artis Magnae Artilleriae Pars Prima” Cancel on First Day Cover 1994 from Lithuania honouring Siemienowicz and his creations on a special Europa stamp also showing an array of Siemienowicz’s rocket concept designs.

Wubbo Ockels Passes We note with great sadness the death of the first Dutch astronaut Prof. Wubbo Ockels who died from cancer on 18th May 2014. Bert van Eijck will pay a full tribute to this very brave man who openly declared his death a year in advance—see Orbit 99 for October 2013.

Ockels is shown second from the right in this STS-61A crew photo from October 1985

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Dating and Backdating space covers

Bruce Cranford

Introduction

2001, 2 December, or - 1 February 2012.

One may often find a space cover (also known as event covers, first day covers) cancelled on a date that is not the date of the event. It may even be a date different from when it was actually cancelled. As an example, a space cover cancelled on January 1, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA, commemorating a satellite launched on December 31 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Three possible reasons exist. Some relate to space and time, others to the human condition. The three reasons are event date, Time Zones and Backdating.

Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the date convention of the country that applied the cancellation. This situation is not likely to improve in the future. In fact, it may become more of an issue as more countries launch spacecraft.

1) Event date.

The event date appears to be a simple concept, the date of the event. This concept becomes a more complex issue as more countries enter into space. Not every country uses the same calendar!

Most industrialized countries use the Gregorian calendar, ISO format {ISO} year/month/day (year/mm/dd) (yyyy/mm/ dd). The numbering system used are Hindu-Arabic digits.

The month and day use two digits where the year is four digits. Some countries use Roman numbers for months or days, and some use Roman/Cyrillic alphabet abbreviations for a month. Some countries use different formats for dates, e.g., mm/dd/yyyy.

The USA uses mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy as well as numbers and abbreviations for months. Russia uses dd/ mm/yyyy or dd/mm/yy as well as numbers and abbreviations for months. China uses yy/mm/dd or yyyy/ mm/dd as well as a mixture of Chinese characters and Hindu-Arabic numbers. Europe uses dd/mm/yyyy or dd/ mm/yy as well as numbers and abbreviations for months.

Japan uses two types of dates: A) year of the emperor, all in Hindu-Arabic numerals, year, month, day {e.g. 1.8.23 = 1st year of the emperor (1989).

August 23rd or in USA date, August 23, 1989}. The previous emperor example 58.8.29 is August 29, 1983. Japan has had two emperors during the space age. To obtain the date during the 1st emperor’s reign (1925 to 1988), add 25 to the emperor year. To obtain the date during the 2nd emperor’s reign, (1988 to present) add 88 to the emperor year.

B) day, month, year (western). Day in Hindu-Arabic numerals, months in Roman numerals, and year in HinduArabic numerals. (E.g., 28.VIII.94 is August 28, 1994 or 1994/08/28).

An example of possible confusion is the date 1-2-12.

Depending on the country, it can mean: - January 2nd, 2012, or 7 (Ji-Zi);- 2001 February 12th, or

2) Time Zones (Figure 1, Tables 1 & 2).

The earth is divided into 24 time zones. This concept came about because of train travel, the industrial revolution and the need for more accurate time keeping. The fascinating history of time and time zones is beyond the scope of this article.

The time of the space event is based upon; A) local time and/or B) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), also known as Universal Time Coordinate, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or Universal Time (UT or UT1). UTC is also known as Zulu (Z).

It is the local time at zero degrees (0o) longitude at the Greenwich Observatory, England. Figure 1 shows the location of the spacecraft/satellite launch sites shown in their respective time zones. Russia often uses DMV (Moscow standard time) for launch times. China uses Beijing time.

Space event dates may be local time, GMT, DMV or major city.

As an example, if a spacecraft is launched from Vandenberg AFB, USA, local time is 10:00 P.M. (22:00 hours, Pacific Standard Time) on December 31, the reported spacecraft launch date UTC will be 06:00 hours, January 1.

Consider a hypothetical satellite launched from Vandenberg AFB on Saturday, December 31 at 10:00 P.M. (22:00 hours) which is the local time and date. It is officially reported as launched January 1, 6:00 A.M. (06:00) UTC. Assume that Monday (January 2) is a holiday and the post office is closed and will reopen on Tuesday (January 3). January 3rd is the first day the space cover can be cancelled. The space cover will indicate a date of January 3 for a launch that took place on January 1 UTC but was actually launched December 31, for a space cover that was dated January 3. The official International Designation or COSPAR would be -01A for a launch that took place on December 31, local time, UTC time and date of 2January 1.

Consider a hypothetical satellite launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China, at 7:00 A.M. local time, December 31. The launch date would be 23:00 UTC, December 30. Yes, this is confusing.

3) Backdating covers.

The definition of Backdating covers is “the practice of applying the cancellation using the date of the event, not the date when the space cover was actually cancelled.” This 14

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Figure 1 Location of spacecraft launch sites. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_time_zones_of_the_world.png 2013}

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is also known as post dating and predating, late dating (applying the cancellation prior to the event).

The practice of backdating space covers is very controversial. The question arises, is this an acceptable practice? Many organizations, collectors, manufactures, and sellers were contacted for their opinion on backdating space covers. The various issues, rules and opinions are summarized.

The subject of backdating space covers is only part of the larger issues addressing errors, mistakes, counterfeit, forged, misrepresentation, and/or suspect astrophilatelic materials. This article will address only backdating space covers.

In many parts of the world, it is customary to cancel a space cover on the day of the space event that it is commemorating. The cancellation is applied by the official postal service in that country, or a designated person authorized to do so by the postal service. The official postal service, postal authority or post office is open during designated hours and applies the cancellation during those hours. If the launch or event occurs when the post office is closed, the cancellation may be applied when the post office reopens.

If the space event occurs after the post office is closed but on the same day, then the cancellation will be applied the next day that the post office is open. In the case of the December 31 launch, if the launch occurred after the post office closes, then the post office will apply the cancellation the next day the post office is open. If that happens to be January 1, then that is the date of the cancellation.

The following is a summary of the postal regulations and various space cover organizations’ policies: The governing body of Astrophilately worldwide is "Fédération Internationale de Philatélie" (FIP). The following articles/rules address cancellation dates on astrophilatelic materials: “FIP SERV Article 3 Principles of Exhibit Composition 3.

Among the special characteristics of Astrophilately are envelopes and cards cancelled by the post office at the place and on the exact date of the special events” {FIP} “FIP SERV GUIDELINES FOR JUDGING ASTROPHILATELIC EXHIBITS Article 3: Principles of Exhibit Composition: 3.3.8 Envelopes and cards recording launches, landings or other space activities shall be postmarked with the exact date on which they took place.

3.3.9 Where the post office was closed at the time when launches, landings or other space activities took place, the postmark of the next working day is valid.”

3.3.12 Mail from ships, helicopters and/or airplanes participating in the recovery shall be postmarked with a date during the mission.

3.3.18 After 1986, postmarks recording launches of spacecraft should only be shown from the post office nearby the launch site with the exact date of the event for the development and/or the construction of such rockets.” {FIP} The United States Postal Service (USPS) rules are: "USPS Regulations: 2 Philately 21 Philatelic Policies and Procedures 231.22 Backdating and Predating. It is Postal Service policy to prohibit backdating of mail except: a. When Postal Service operating requirements and public demand necessitate that postmarking operations commence before or continue after the date contained in the postmark. b. When replacements are made for damaged, defective, or missing postmarks. c. When all requirements for postmarking are met by customers, and postmarks are not applied because of errors of Postal Service personnel. d. As noted in references to first day of issue postmarks provided in sections 231.4b, 231.63d, 231.7, and 232.4.

231.61 Date and Place of Postmarking Post Offices may provide postmarking for philatelic purposes before the actual date of the postmark and may continue after that date when demand, processing capability, or other requirements of the Postal Service dictate. However, under no circumstances may any postmarked materials be released before the date of the postmark. The manager, Customer Service, or designee, may determine that local processing capability requires philatelic postmarking services be performed at an office other than the Post Office of the official postmark. In this case, all materials to be postmarked must be received at or deposited in the Post Office where the postmark is being used or at the office designated by the manager, Customer Service, or designee." {Ball} In the United States, the post office closes after 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, is closed Sunday and reopens on Monday. If the launch occurred at 10:00 P.M. (22:00 hours) Saturday, December 31, then the post office will apply the cancellation on Monday, January 2.

In many countries, the post offices are closed on holidays. If Monday, January 2 was a holiday, then the post office will reopen January 3, and the cancellation will be January 3.

Some US post offices will backdate covers including space covers, event covers and first day covers up to 60 days after the event. In Europe, some countries will cancel event covers up to 60 days after the event. Once reason is the post office hours. Another reason can be, as Umberto Cavallaro mentioned, the number of space covers cancelled for popular events may exceed the capability of a post office to cancel in one day.

David Ball comments: “The Post Office provides for legitimate backdated postmarks. If a FDC were destroyed in the mail, for example, the PO could replace it with an envelope with the same date.

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The First Man on the Moon issue (C-76) had more than 8.4 million FDCs. The issue date was applied for I think a five months after the day the stamp came out.

I am a little less clear, however, about the legality (appropriateness) of the AP-1 Apollo Tragedy postmark. The fire occurred at 6:31 P.M.. I would think most post offices would be closed by 5 P.M..

Don't know whether the KSC post office was open after the fire but there were about 50 KSC Officials (unreleased since the flight wasn't scheduled to fly until Feb 21) postmarked with the Jan 27, 1967 date. The PAFB office was open to 8 P.M. so legitimate cancels are theoretically possible assuming collectors lived nearby and rushed to the post office. Satellite Beach was open until 7 P.M.. Houston, which was an hour behind was open until midnight, so the 100 or so philatelic covers postmarked on that date are not questioned.

If KSC was closed before the fire but the Postmaster is a friend can he legitimately open it and cancel your covers?

You might mention that the Soviet philatelic agency, Kniga, routinely backdated covers for collectors. Since there was no public announcement for Sputnik or Gagarin, collectors had no warning that an astrophilatelic even was about to take place. Russians might be forgiven for permitting these cancels since there was no other way of exhibiting Russian achievements.

The Mercury stamp dated Feb 20, 1962 is an interesting set of questions; Are all ship cancels with Mercury stamps backdated? (No) Are all USS Noa cancels with Mercury stamps backdated? (Yes) Are all USS Noa cancels with non-Mercury stamps "good"?

(Maybe) Did ships other than USS Noa backdate Mercury stamps?

(Yes)” {Ball 2} Umberto Cavallaro (president of the Italian Astrophilately Society, ASITAF) added “Well known exceptions were, for example, the FDC of the C76 stamp of Paul Calle (designer of First Man on the Moon): if I remember well, 8 cancelling devices were ordered by the Postal Administration (also this is another interesting issue!) and "parallel" team of postal officers/clerks worked in shifts for more than 5 months to satisfy the 8,5 million of requests coming from all over the world. Something similar has happened with the Mercury stamp of John Glenn, and later for other FDCs like the Elvis Presley which had 4,5 million requests.

It's not easy to identify backdated items, unless gross mistakes are made like in well-known cases such as the one described in AD*ASTRA for December 2013, page 7 or illustrated in the enclosed picture (from my collection): this was prepared for celebrating one month after Sputnik, by postmarking with the date of November 4,

1957 a stamp issued on November 5, 1957, i.e. the following day (not to mention the infamous Baikonur fakes. I calculated that at least 60.000 such fake covers were produced!).” {Cavallaro} American First Day Cover Society: “Regarding the postmarks, modern FDC servicers enjoy a “grace period” provided by the USPS, so that we may ourselves affix the stamps and submit them for cancellation.

The current U.S. grace period is usually 60 days for collectors (and longer on some last-minute issues) and 4 months for dealer/servicers. Other countries don’t codify their grace periods, but several of the major stamp-issuing countries also allow an unspecified grace period. The AFDCS does not have a position on this.

There have been other instances of unofficial back-dating of postmarks, such as cancels from a small post office showing “December 25th.” That post office obviously wasn’t open for business that day. However, the AFDCS has no official position on these, either.” {de Vries} Charles Bromser (member of the FIP Astrophilately Commission) “Ethical; yes if the back dating is done by an official Post Office as part of their policy, no if it's done to defraud collectors by cover makers. When is it acceptable, when it is done to cover weekend closures, strikes, or unforeseen closures of a Post Office. The trade should tell their clients that a cover has been back dated. Different countries have differing policies. In Australia, the Post Office back dates FDCs up to about a fortnight from an event. I suspect many administrations follow similar rules in aid to satisfy their client base. As far as exhibiting goes, judges would expect back dated items to be described as such. {Bromser} .

Lollini: “For the FDC covers regarding stamp issue, this is illegal, however nobody checks, because those are made by officials. For commemorative covers, I can write that some of our covers must have been backdated, because when we ship the parcel of covers for cancellation, we send it way in advance to be sure it reach them before the day of a launch.

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But we receive the covers, most of the time 5 or 6 days after launch (normal), but SOMETIMES with a delay of one month after we complain about not receiving them. In that case we can assume those are backdated. But if you ask them they will say "it was cancelled on the right day". The opposite must be true also as I have sometime received covers 2 days after launch, which make it "advance-dated" by at least one or two days.

We are confident that our PARIS covers are always done the same day. However Kourou is not so serious about the job : the certainly do not understand our hobby. The only absolute fact is that since the mechanical cancellation is sealed and switch date automatically, it is impossible to forward or back date anything. (the machine are now maintained via internet with daily reports about for example the number of cancelled items) (France itself and territories). I just have an insight both at my bank and my local post office with those machines. The manual cancels, are just manual so all is doable. I have no evidence about other countries practices.” {Lollini} Stefan Bruylants (President of the Belgian Philatelic Society Cosmos).

“I got some information from the President of the Belgian Philatelic Society: - backdating is forbidden in Belgium only when there is a special cancellation at the occasion of a pre-sale, collectors can order this special cancellation until about 14 days after the date, but only for that seal and only at the Philatelic Business office in Mechelen (seat of the Belgian Post).

So officially it is forbidden in Belgium, but who does the control? Even BPost (Belgian Post) edited last year a set of cards with old aviation stamps postmarked with a seal from Brussels 2013, while these stamps were no longer in use.” {Bruylants}

the space cover words to the effect that the cover was backdated, including the date of the event and date of the cancellation application.

One of the first steps in determining the validity of the cancellation is understanding the time and date issues to determine the actual space event date and cancellation date. The next step is determining when the cancellation date was applied and who applied it.

In summary, some space covers were and are backdated, either by postal officials or private individuals. Numerous reasons exist that were identified above. Some space covers are readily identified as being backdated. Some were identified through extensive research. Some are suspected of being backdated but cannot be proven.

Concluding from these comments, it is acceptable for official postal organizations to backdate covers. The acceptability of non postal organizations and individuals to backdate covers appear to present a greater problem. In summary, the de facto policy appears to be used by most of the space cover community is that it is acceptable for a postal authorities to backdate space covers, but not acceptable for the nonpostal organizations and individuals to backdate covers without informing the collectors.

The advancement in technology allows both for more backdating and better detection. As an example of how much technology is capable of doing, please examine Figure 3, the Elvis Presley cover! According to the cover, it was cancelled on the day and place Elvis was born, autographed sometime during his life, and cancelled using a stamp issued after his death. All is possible with “photoshop,” an ink jet printer, stamp and an envelope.

Jeff Dugdale indicated the Astro Space Stamp Society did not have a policy {Dugdale}.

Fugen Ling indicated the in China, backdating is not done.

Many of the countries and space cover organizations were contacted but did not provide any information or failed to respond. Some individuals have backdated covers. The cancellation date does affect the price of the space covers and is one of the primary reasons for backdating covers.

This practice presents an ethical dilemma for the dealers and customers. The backdating may increase the value of the space cover and is one of the primary reasons for the practice if individuals backdating. Articles, books, and periodicals are available addressing specific instances of backdating covers. Examples include {Winick 2} {Bulver Suspect} {CollectSpace} {AD*ASTRA}.

The backdating of space covers discussion is far from over.

The future of backdating covers is not likely to change.

Should covers be backdated? Should the customers be informed a cover was backdated? Some dealers place on 18

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Dating and Backdating space covers Bibliography AD*ASTRA, http://www.asitaf.it/asitaf/, quarterly Journal of ASITAF (Italian Astrophilately Society), 2008-2014" 2014

Winick, Lester, Soviet Space Catalog, Lester Winick 2121 Maple Road, Homewood, IL 60430-1103, 1978,

Ball, David, "American Astrophilately, The First 50 Tears" A&A Publishing, 1312 Winchester Dr.,Charleston, SC 29407, 2010, ISBN 978-0-615-34201-6 Ball 2, David, E-mail, December 16, 2013 & March 8, 2014.

“The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 (NB 1582/2/24) by papal bull Inter gravissimas. It is a reform of the Julian calendar.”

Bromser, Charles, E-mail January 10, 2014. Space Unite Web Site Manager. http://www.space-unit.com/

ASPS Congress 2015, Perth

Bruylants, S., E-mail, February 2, 2014, President of the Belgian Philatelic Society Cosmos

Your editor entered three displays into competition this year, the 85th Annual Congress, reports Bob Catto Thematic ~ (Scottish Thematic Rosebowl) “International Space Station, history of this important scientific / human endeavour”. For which he received a Small Silver Gilt 79 points.

Bulver, P., Ramksssoon, R., Winick, L., "Bulver Suspect", Study of Suspect Space Covers, Space Unit, CD, www.stargate.1usa.com/stamps, 2001

Literature ~ (James Merrylees Trophy) “ORBIT” The journal of the Astro Space Stamp Society.

For this Jeff received a large Silver Gilt with 82 points and the Trophy, which he holds until next Congress.

Cavallaro, Umberto, Personal communication e-mail, 12/18/2913 and 3/6/2014. http://www.asitaf.it/asitaf/ Collect Space, http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/ Forum20/HTML/000850.html, 2014

Literature “Theodor Herzl – Zionist Visionary”. For this entry Jeff received a Bronze with 58 points, beaten only by himself.

Cranford, graphics modified by the author. de Vries, Lloyd, President, American First Day Cover Society (AFDCS), E-mail January 12, 2014. http://www.afdcs.org/ Dugdale, J., E-mail, January 17, 2014, Editor of Orbit, the Journal of the Astro Space Stamp Society.

FIP "Fédération Internationale de Philatélie", http://www.fi-p.ch/, 2014 ISO. Data elements and interchange formats - Information interchange - Representation of dates and times, ISO 8601, International Standards Organization, Information and documentation, published by ISO, Case postale 56, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland http://www.iso.org/iso/support/ faqs/faqs_widely_used_standards widely_used_standards_other/ date_and_time_format.htm, 2008

As Jeff and his wife Eve had been away on holiday they were unable to attend the formal awards ceremony at the Congress dinner on Friday evening. A small presentation was arranged for Saturday, an excellent day to choose as it was “Cosmonauts Day” or as it is now called “International Day of Human Space Flight” in recognition of Yuri Gagarin ‘s “first man in space”, flight 53 years ago.

The presentation was in the Gallery overlooking the exhibition. Dr. David Kindley of Aberdeen P.S., President of Congress 2013/14 presented Jeff his Trophy with Margaret Morris, Bob & Irene Catto in attendance.

Following on from Dr David Kindley, Margaret Morris, Chairman Emeritus ASSS, read out a letter from Ian Ridpath the Chairman of the Astro Space Stamp Society.

Ian praised Jeff for his outstanding work since taking over as Editor of “ORBIT”. (The text of our Chairman’s comments was given in our 100th edition) Adjudication commentary on Orbit: Total 82%

Lollini, Personal communication, E-mail 1/16/2014 and 3/6/2014, http://www.espacelollini.com/ Reichman, J., Philatelic Study Report 2008-2, Commemorative Space Covers from Collector Clubs of the Soviet Union, 1957-1980, 2008

“1. Personal or collective research: 34% 40 pages of well researched articles by knowledgeable authors along with acknowledge articles taken from other publications.

“2. Critical appreciation of contents : 34% - lots of information on the philatelic items back up by lots of information on space. Not sure how to react to articles taken from other publications ?

Steiner, Tom “Astrophile 5/1970", Article on Riser covers.

Washington Post, Date 2000/12/30, 1150 15th St. N.W., Washington, D.C., 20071, http://www.washingtonpost.com Wikipedia, Web Site http://www.wikipedia.org/, 2008

“3. Production: 14% No table of contents but layout strong and the use of illustrations was very good. Is the journal in full colour when accessed on –line?”

See related photographs by Bob Catto on back cover.

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2013 Japan issue shows ill-fated Comet ISON

Comets lllustrated are : McNaught, Holmes, Panstarrs, Halley, Hale-Bopp, Machholz, LINEAR Lulin Swan NEAT

Thanks to Haruki Ikuro for the following info about a new issue from Japan on 1.11.13 showing 10 stamps of 50 yen value within a sheetlet, costing 1,600 yen. 34,300 were printed The above illustration also shows a postcard with “ISON� writ large on the right hand side.

Alas, Comet ISON, whose appearance and projected reappearance was much anticipated late last Autumn evaporated in the vicinity of the Sun.

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Spring Stampex 2014 As a Group member of the British Thematic Association, the ASSS agreed to support BTA’s request to send noncompetitive exhibits to Stampex this year in order to promote our aspect of thematic collecting and two Scottish members sent material. Here Bob Catto from Edinburgh reviews his experience of attending the event.

It has been a few years since we travelled south to visit Stampex.

We had been recommended to try York Race Course, Stamp & Coin Fair. My wife, Irene and I think it is better as we can sit at tables unlike most of the Stampex stalls. .

We decided to travel down on the Wednesday, but not to visit the stamp show until Saturday. Thursday and Friday we took the KPMG Thames Clipper (London Transport) from the Embankment downstream to Greenwich where there was a display of Turner Maritime paintings and several other attractions to see. Well worth a visit.

To Stampex, only a short bus ride from our hotel on Euston Road.

Not much had changed along the route until we were inside the Business Design Centre. The Village green with displays was no more, replaced by ten or so dealers stalls. Not even the Royal Mail booth was in that area as it had been on our previous visits.

A quick look at the map in the guide book was necessary as signage was pretty poor. We went up onto the main floor as we had a couple of requests for some Royal Mail goods from Edinburgh club members and decided to get them out of the way. However not all the Royal Mail sales were there. The Post & Go Machines were back downstairs tucked away behind one of the stalls at the entrance and off to the side but this was not obvious as we went back down the stairs. Eventually they were found so orders were fulfilled and several specials for our collections purchased.

After a quick look around the main floor we ventured into the displays. Some were absolutely lovely, pleasant to look at and well laid out, but some were cluttered and hard to read. It was unfortunate that the time scales were tight on getting initial information into the Societies, as some Societies did not get the information in time for their final meeting of the year. As a result there were fewer Thematic Displays than there could have been.

Fortunately the two ASSS displays, mine and Jeff Dugdale’s, were far enough apart not to be compared. i.e. USA Skylab Space Station & Soviet Space Stations. Both looked fine. In fact we thought both better than some that had rosettes attached to the frame.

Hopefully the pictures I took of our displays will give you some idea of the quality.

We spent more time on the upper level where the stalls have seats for viewing. Part of my collection is USA and the US dealer Stephen Taylor, now upstairs, preferred it there. We both found some nice items to add to our collections, making it a worthwhile visit.

Also on that level was the cafeteria, very much improved since our last visit.

It was also noted that a lot of dealers were dealing with other dealers and ignoring the customers. Maybe this is part of the Saturday scene as on previous visits we did not attend on the Saturday afternoon. But more disappointing was the fact that some dealers who were starting to pack up an hour before published closing time. That will not encourage new collectors who may only be able to come in on the Saturday afternoon and 20% of their scheduled buying time is taken away.

All in all we had a nice break for three days and two good journeys.

However from Edinburgh, York Race Course, Stamp & Coin Fair, still looks the better deal. It’s half the journey time and within walking distance of the train station.

Bob & Irene Catto February 2014

Bob’s display on Skylab

Jeff’s display on Salyut

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Poetry in Space, Soviet Style By Jim Reichman Most of the artisans that collectors might associate with space-related, philatelic materials are probably those who painted, designed, and/or engraved the graphic images that appear on stamps, envelope cachets, and postcards. Some might go so far as to include the sculptors who created space monuments or other types of space artifacts imaged on those same philatelic materials. Few, perhaps, would think to include poets among the artisans who helped create space-related, philatelic memorabilia.

Admittedly there aren’t many, but a few Soviet, spacerelated postcards were found to contain poetry that extolled or at least mentioned spaceflight. This article’s purpose is to show examples of these along with an attempt at translating the poems printed on those cards.

Figure 1 – School-Start Postcard Figure 2 – Young cosmonaut preparing to take the Soviet flag to the Moon.

Readers are forewarned, however, of the difficulties of translating poems from one language into another. What rhymes in one language almost never does in the second language especially if the word sequences remain relatively the same. Poetic licence, to the fullest extent that that term implies, was used to come up with the rhyming translations contained herein.

One of the earliest of these postcards has a production date of 19 May 1960 and is shown in Figure 1. This postcard is extolling the kids to be ready for school starting on the first of September even if they were offered a ride to the Moon.

The poem translation on this postcard reads: A ride to the Moon would be nice, All the kids agree, But back on the first of September We must surely be.

Unfortunately, the author of this poem is not identified on the postcard. Only the postcard image designer, G. Bedarev, is printed on the card. Perhaps this artist was also the poet?

Another short poem was seen on a postcard produced on an unknown date in 1963. This one is a bit more obscure for non-Soviet citizens because it refers to “Octobrists” who were members of a political party in Russian around the time of the Soviet revolution in 1917. See Figure 2. The designer of this postcard image was Yu. Kuzmik and the poet was A. Zharov.

The message in this poem is perhaps meant to help convince postcard recipients in the early 1960s that the Soviets, like the Americans, were indeed preparing to send men to the Moon. That poem translates: While Octobrists could not hope To reach space on a horse.

We prepare to fly to the Moon In a cosmic rocket, of course!

The next postcard is one that many cosmic philatelists may have overlooked. See Figure 3. The reason it might be overlooked is that there is no space image in its design. It does, however, have a space-related poem, the earliest Soviet philatelic item having a such a feature in its design. This postcard shows a young boy holding a model airplane with fighter jets in the background. The poem below the boy translates: Pilots sit in their planes and head into blue sky.

I want to be a pilot too Someday to Mars I’ll fly.

Figure 3 : Young airplane enthusiast

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This particular poem is written in Ukrainian, has a production date of 29 January 1959, and was printed in Kiev. As with many of these postcards, no poet is identified. Only the postcard image artist’s name, Yu. Mikhailov, is identified.

Figure 5 Cosmonaut medal and poem

This poem’s message seems a tad bit premature for 1959 since the first Soviet space probe to Mars was not launched until 1 November 1962. Perhaps it was inspired by someone who knew or read about the early Soviet space pioneer Fridrikh Tsander. Tsander was in charge of a small group of Moscow space enthusiasts attempting to build a rocket in the early 1930s. To encourage those working with him, he was prone to blurt out “To Mars! To Mars! Onward to Mars!” which he believed was an important spaceflight quest.

Figure 4 Caravans of Rockets

The next postcard with what appears to be another short poem is shown in line stanzas with the refrain (from Figure 4) after each of Figure 4. them. It translates:

I believe, Friends …

The image on this postcard was designed by N. Popov and shows multiple rockets and spacecraft soaring over the Earth with the Moon and Saturn in the background.

This postcard was first produced on an undisclosed date probably early in 1962. Its initial printing run was only 70,000 copies. Once released, there must have been a tremendous demand for this postcard because a reprinting was done (also at an unidentified date in 1962) of another 700,000 copies!

The space maps are stored away in their cases As the navigator finalizes our route.

Let’s light them up, guys, As we still have time left before we start on this space flight.

Refrain: ( see the words in Figure 4).

Someday we’ll recall the years with friends, As these first stellar paths we blazed.

As the first to achieve these cherished goals From above our homeland we gazed.

Refrain: ( see the words in Figure 4).

Long have they waited for us, At this far distant planet, With its cold and silent land.

But no planet waits for us better than this dear planet that we call the Earth.

The poem on this postcard translates: I believe, friends, that caravans of rockets will propel us from star to star, where in the dust of distant planets we will leave our tracks afar.

Unfortunately this card also does not identify the poet.

Luckily, however, another postcard (see Figure 5) was produced later that same year (4 August 1962) and this latter card includes this poem and identifies the poem’s author.

Even more interestingly, that 4-line poem in Figure 4 turned out to be just the refrain for a much larger poem shown in Figure 5.

Refrain: ( see the words in Figure 4) The main graphic feature in this postcard is the pilotcosmonaut medal awarded to each cosmonaut after their first spaceflight. This symbolic is highly appropriate given probable cosmonaut interests in traveling to distant planets and leaving their footstep imprints in the surface dust similar to the footprints left by the American astronauts on the Moon.

The next postcard was also produced at some unidentified The title of the full poem, shown at the top of this postcard, date in 1962. This particular one was part of a set of 5, reads: “I Believe, Friends …”, and its poet, Vladimir subject-related postcards sold in a folder. Each card Voikovich, is identified at the bottom. The poem has 3 multi23

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Figure 6 Byelorrussian folk poem Figure 7 Moon rocket frightening angel

contained an image and a short poem.

The name of this set of postcards is “Byelorussian Folk Verses”.

Only one was space related and is shown in Figure 6.

Zirka) more than the rest from this article, clearly espouses the official-Soviet, anti-religious, party line.

And last, but not least, is a wonderful New Years poem from Unless the the 1963 reader is postcard shown familiar with in Figure 8.

Byelorussian folk customs, the exact translation is hard to decipher. Hopefully the In this postcard, Grandfather Frost (the Russian equivalent to translation words chosen in this case reveals at least the Santa Claus) has a small fir tree in hand and is running to spirit of the verse’s meaning for this elderly Byelorussian catch a flight on a space rocket. The top of this rocket is couple. painted with the Soviet star and the word “Peace”. This word appropriately relates to the poem that reads: That meaning is something similar to but opposite what Grandfather Frost hurries for a reason, Jackie Gleason’s character Ralph Kramden used to say to his Approaches fast, this New Year season. wife, Alice, in the TV Honeymooner skits. When Alice Ready in earnest to take his place irritated Ralph in some manner he would say: “One of these On this flight into outer space. days, Alice, POW ! Straight to the Moon!” meaning he Above the Earth. while orbit coasting would send her to the Moon. In this Byelorussian version of He would be sincerely toasting that scene, the husband says, in effect, “…stop it or I will That no more will the chimes of wars leave and go to the Moon” while pointing to a rocket in flight Be heard among the merry stars. near the Moon.

Figure 8

The poem translates: Grandpa to Grandma gestures: Enough, enough, he mutters, Stop now your grumbling cry Or I to the Moon will fly.

New Years rocket with holiday message poem

This postcard image and poem are, perhaps, the closest that the Soviets ever got to wishing the world “Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men” in a space-related, philatelic issue.

The next postcard shows a Soviet rocket on its way to the Moon scaring an angel who happened to be near its flight path. This particular postcard has the space poem on the back, address side of the card. See a scan of the image side in Figure 7. The poem, printed in the Ukrainian language, translates something like: Achievements of scientists, the world admires, As religious illusions, like smoke, dissipate.

Soviet rockets continue their heroic spaceflights And open the doors of the Space-Era gate.

This postcard has a production date of 4 April 1961 which was just a few days prior to the heroic spaceflight of Cosmonaut Gagarin in Vostok-1 on 12 April. The image, of course, clearly is referencing viewers to the series of Luna spaceflight achievements from 1959. This poem (by poet M. 24

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City Post (New entries 2) from John Beenen As I expected, indeed, there are more city post and unauthorized stamps floating around in the cyberspace.

In the meantime I met four of them: 1. A sheet of city post Venlo (a town in the southern part of Holland) with a picture of Edward White during his first space walk.

2. An English strip from 29 March 1970: ‘Fund for freedom to fly model rockets’ of the Midland Rocket Association, but to me it belongs to the sub-subject ‘rocket post’.

3.Further I found and bought a strip of 8 stamps of the Dan Dare collection. At first I thought it were reprints because of the good conservation but they were printed in 1956 hence real.

4.And finally a block of 6 stamps: : 3 of 20 year cosmic era and 3 of 60 year of the Great October 1977, Union of philatelic exhibitions.

Thus ends this article on cosmic philately.

Hopefully some part has piqued your interest.

Despite the fact it spoke quite poetically, It should be of help to any space-cover quest.

References: Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Vol. 18, p. 392.

Reichman, James, “Onward to Mars!”, Astrophile, Jul-Aug 2004.

The Russian word that translates to “light them up” is specifically referring to cigarettes.

Reichman, James, Philatelic Study Report 2005-1, Russian New Year’s Issues Related to Spaceflight, 15 December 2005, pp. 1-4, 45.

Original, non-Soviet poem by this article’s author, Jim Reichman

Newly acquired by Nik Steggall for his autograph collection, this signed card of the first Chinese astronaut.

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Proposed UK Spaceport May be Under 20 miles from Editor’s Home

The above story from the Aberdeen Press & Journal for May 2nd 2014 caught your editor’s eye as Kinloss Barracks (formerly RAF Kinloss) is half an hour’s drive West of his house.

The story’s juxtaposition with photos of Sir Richard Branson and a Virgin Galactica craft however does not bear up since as the text makes clear it seems that the Virgin boss is more interested in a site on the Swedish coast. However that Kinloss could become a spaceport in the foreseeable future (albeit Scotland becoming independent !!) is a real possibility.

Space Tourism issues from Guinea in 2010 show Scot Will Whitehorn, formerly President of Virgin Galactica and Branson as an astronaut beside a VG craft

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Classical Constellations

The Dioskouroi— Polydeuces—Castor and Pollux

Exploiting his interest in stamps about space and those depicting classical mythology your editor continues a series referencing all the stamps we believe to exist in relation to the best known constellations and the classical legends related to them—using extracts and illustrations from the DK publication Universe (2005), the text of which was written by

Twin brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, they were the sons of Leda by Tyndareus and Zeus respectively and brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. “Dioscuri” aka “sons of Zeus” are Gemini in Roman legend. They had the same mother but shared different fathers, meaning that Pollux was immortal but Castor not so and when he died Pollux asked his father to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together and they were transformed into the Gemini constellation. The pair were regarded as special guardians of sailors to whom they appeared in the phenomenon known as St Elmo’s Fire.

Shown above on Greece 2009 in the company of the bronze giant 28

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Zodiac Constellation sets The full list 1961—2014 Australia 2007 Austria 2005 Canada 2011 Czech Rep 2003 Faroes (seal) 2001 France 1977 France 2014 Greece 2007 Grenada 2013 Guyana 1992 Guyana 2013 Hong Kong 2012 India 2010 Israel 1961 Israel 1962 Kazakhstan 1997 Liberia 2014 Liechtenstein 1976 Japan 2011—2013 (4 MS) Romania 2001/2 Romania 2011 Russia 2004 Maldives 1974 Mali 1972 Marshall Is 2010 Poland 1996 San Marino 1970 Somalia 1985 Spanish Territories 1968 Sri Lanka 2007 Switzerland 1982 Taiwan 2001 Ukraine 2008 Maldives 1974 designs are identical to Guyana 1992 The above list was worked out by your editor for an article he has written on constellations for STAMP Magazine.

Below a more detailed list produced for Orbit in 2000 by Harvey Duncan.

On Uruguay 1935 showing the symbolic brotherhood of Uruguay and Paraguay

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Clearly a wide variety of the world’s crabs used here !!

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New Mali issues feature Famous and Obscure Cosmonauts You may recall that in 2010 this former French Colony in Northern Africa produced 13 sheets, each bearing images of nine shuttle crews in chronological order, so producing stamps for almost all NASA’s flown astronauts. I have used these from time to time in articles ever since, most extensively in the article on doctors in space in issue 100.

These of course would not have appeared (widely, or at all) on Mali postal items and are clearly philatelic, as is Mali’s latest contribution to our hobby, a series of 27 mini-sheets (produced in association with Rossica 2013) each bearing the image of three cosmonauts, many instantly recognisable, whilst for others you’ll need to get out the reference work.

These are quite expensive with Lollini selling at €18 for each set of three. However they have much more artistic merit than the Mali’s NASA crew sets, including images of mission patches and other unmanned spacecraft and probes. They also have unusual perforation patterns, not that you’ll want to tear up the sheets, 5 of the 27 illustrated here from http://www.espacelollini.com/cataweb/index

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Stamping Through Astronomy by Renato Dicati FROM THE CHAIRMAN I’ve been reading a book called Stamping Through Astronomy by Renato Dicati, an Italian astronomer and keen member of the Italian astrophilately society ASITAF. The book came out last year (2013) but the publishers, Springer, gave it little publicity and this might be the first you have heard of it.

As you would expect from its title, the book’s theme is astronomy on stamps. However, it is not a comprehensive stamp catalogue, nor does it intend to be. It is actually an overview of the development of astronomy from ancient times to the present. Hence we have chapters on ancient astronomy, the Copernican revolution, the development of celestial mechanics, the invention of the telescope, the advent of astrophysics, cosmology and the opening up of new wavelengths from radio to X-rays.

For illustrations, the author has used stamps and related items such as FDCs, postmarks and maxi cards. According to Dicati there are over 1,300 stamps shown, all full-size and all in colour. I was impressed by the wide-ranging choice of stamps he found, cleverly chosen to represent a broad spread of issuing countries. There were quite a few stamps that I had not come across before and I will certainly be seeking to add some of them to my own collection. The quality of reproduction is first-class.

Dicati describes the stamps in extended captions, and draws attention to various details in their designs that might not be immediately obvious. This is particularly helpful in the case of old astronomical instruments whose purpose may be obscure to the modern eye. Dicati also points out the occasional design error: I, for one, had not noticed that the stamp from Mali commemorating the 200th anniversary of Kepler’s birth contains a diagram used

by Rømer to demonstrate the velocity of light, rather than one of Kepler’s diagrams of the orbits of the planets which was presumably intended. Little gems can be found tucked away in various corners of stamps, such as William Herschel’s drawing of the structure of the Milky Way on the 26p stamp of the Royal Mail astronomy set from 1990.

Unfortunately the author seldom gives the name of the issuing country or the year of issue in the captions, leaving the reader to search for clues to identify each stamp.

One of the earliest, and certainly most impressive, examples of astronomy on stamps is a set of six from Mexico in 1942, marking the opening of the Tonantzintla Observatory. Pictures of all six are scattered throughout the book, illustrating various topics. See if you can find them! It is not widely realized that the photographs on these stamps are actually from the Harvard plate collection and were not taken at Tonantzintla at all. An explosion of astro stamps from all over the world accompanied the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, and Dicati includes many of these. His most recent examples are from 2012.

The sometimes fractured English prose might be puzzling in places to non-astronomers. The publishers should have had an English-speaking editor read the book before publishing it.

That aside, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to all ASSS members. You are bound to find something new here, both about stamps and about astronomy.

Congratulations to Renato Dicati on producing such a useful and informative volume.

Ian Ridpath Stamping Through Astronomy by Renato Dicati, Springer, 373 pages, ISBN 978-8847028289, £35.99 hardback, £27.99 eBook.

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Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) Space Artist John Beenen looks at the achievements of the But best known American is till Chesley Bonestell. doyen of American space art Chesley Bonestell was an American artist, designer and illustrator. His paintings were of decisive importance for the development of science fiction and very inspiring for the American space programme. But he was not the first in the field:s ome artists preceded him such as the French astronomer-artist Lucien Rudaux (1874-1947), director of the observatory in Donville, Normandy. His paintings often showed often much resemblance with the photos taken by Apollo craft as he painted the Mountains at the Moon not as sharp peaks but more rounded and eroded as a result of the millennium long impacts of meteorites, extreme temperature differences and movements of dust.

Another well-known artist was the Czech Ludek Pesek (1919-1999) who specialised in depicting landscapes of the planet Mars, but he also chose many other subjects.

But many other painters of space subjects are known. Of course the most well-known are the Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (1934) and his cooperation with Andrei Sokolov (1931-2007) produced a series of stamps, as illustrated.

He was born on the 1st of January 1888 in San Francisco and started his painting career in 1905 after he looked at the planet Saturn through a local telescope. Unfortunately this painting was lost after the earthquake of 1906.

In later times he studied architecture but stopped after he noticed that his work as a designer became more important.

Still, together with others, he designed important buildings such as the Art Deco façade and the characteristic eagles of the Chrysler building in New York and many others.

After his short stay in New York he returned to the West coast and worked in Hollywood on special effects for movies.

During that time he realized that he could combine his architectural knowledge well with his interests for astronomy.

The result was a series of paintings of Saturn as seen from its different Moons. In 1947 they were published in ‘Life’ magazine. In particular his drawing from the planet as seen from its Moon Titan probably is the most well-known astronomical landscape ever. It was made using clay models, photographic tricks and different painting techniques.

However, Wikipedia tells us that this amazing view would not be possible in practice as it can be seen only through a thick mist or because of that, not at all.

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In 1949 his most successful drawings were issued in a book edited together with the original German author Willy Ley entitled ‘The onquest of Space’.

They also appear in a science fiction booklet written by Wernher von Braun in 1949 under the title: ‘Project Mars, a technical tale’ still available at the internet.

In the mid-1950’s Wernher von Braun organized a symposium about space flights for the magazine ‘Collier’s’ and invited Bonestell to provide his concepts with his drawings. The covers of Collier’s magazine between 1952 an 1954 became world-wide well-known.

As did some of their front page titles: 22 March 1952: ‘Man will conquer space soon’.

18 October 1952: ‘Man on the Moon’ 25 October 1952: ‘More on Man of the Moon’ 28 February 1953: ‘World’s First space suit’ 7 March 1953: ‘More about Man’s survival in space’ 14 March 1953: ‘How Man will meet emergency in space travel’ 27 June 1953: ‘The baby space station: First step in the conquest of space’ 30 April 1954: ‘Can we get to Mars? Is there life on Mars?’

Every title was good for a couple of articles by, among others: Wernher von Braun, Willy Ley, Cornelius Ryan and Fred Whipple

Nik Steggall Comments on unissued Soviet material Regarding the article on Soviet Interkosmos spaceflighti ssues in the March Orbit I’d like to point out there were many items produced from stamps through to badges that were not issued because of various reasons from the non on -orbit and docking such as the Soyuz 33 flight i.e the missing Bulgarian stamp.

Regarding the Soyuz 36 flight for the joint Soviet -Hungarian spaceflight, there were many items that were dated 1979 which were officially destroyed as the flight was delayed until 1980. This flight also had two sets of commemorative items made for Bertalan Farkash (who flew the mission) and Bela Magyari (who didn`t). Subsequently Magyari`s items were also officially destroyed, though some did survive I have attached a image of a Soviet card of the official stamps and badges of the Soyuz 33 mission which may be of interest.

Bonestell died at June 11th 1986 with an unfinished painting on his easel. During his lifetime he received many honours and was honoured with an asteroid at his name (nr.3129) and a crater on Mars in the Mare Acidalium Quadrangle (42,37º N, 30,57º W, Ø 42,4 km).

The American post office missed a trick as in 2013 for instance his 125th birth anniversary fell and they could have issued a series of his paintings as stamps. Unfortunately this not has been the case.

Literature http://en.wikipedia.org Chesley Bonestell http://en.wikipedia.org Man will conquer space soon www.iaaa.org/gallery The Lucien Redaux memorial gallery http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.nl Dreams of space-book and ephemera, John Sisson www.bonestell.org The art of Chesley Bonestell www.outer-space-art-gallery.com Cosmic space & outer space art gallery

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Soviet IQSY Commemorations, 50th Anniversary The 1st of January 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the International Year of the Quiet Sun (usually abbreviated IQSY). This date also marks the 50th anniversary of the issuance of Soviet stamps commemorating that activity and special, commemorative postmarks to cancel those stamps.

The IQSY “year” was really two years starting January 1964 and ending 24 months later on 31 December 1965. During this period, an international group of researchers studied the Sun and its interactions with the Earth using a variety of sensors including those carried on satellites.

The interest in conducting these studies was a direct result of the success of a previous international scientific project known as the IGY or International Geophysical Year. That IGY research “year” was initially 18 months long from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958 but was extended 12 months until the end of 1959 as part of a continuation effort called the International Geophysical Cooperation Year (IGCY).

Space collectors will all recognize this 1957 to 1959 time period as the very dawn of the space age (called the Cosmic Era by the Soviets) when the first satellites were launched to study the Earth and the space environs around it. The geophysical data these satellites sent back during the IGY project resulted in significant findings. One of these, for example, was the discovery of Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the Earth.

The IGY project was conducted during a period known as “solar maximum” whereas the IQSY was conducted during a quiet period for the Sun otherwise known as “solar minimum”. These terms refer to the number and magnitude of coronal activities that occur on and near the Sun’s surface area and manifest themselves as solar flares, ejected streams of charged particles, and a visible phenomenon known as sun spots. The existence of these spots on the Sun were noted back in ancient times and scientific efforts to measure their quantity each year started over 400 years ago.

by Jim Reichman

More detailed records of all these solar phenomena started about 260 years ago allowing scientists to recognize a fairly consistent cycle of activity that is 11 years long. During that time the lengths of the cycles varied very little but the number of sunspots during the solar maximums varied significantly. These periods are known as solar cycles and are given an identifying number that is changed when a cycle begins at a new solar minimum.1 We are currently about 4 years into the 24th such solar cycle with the last solar maximum occurring during the summer of 2013 and the next solar minimum predicted to occur in the 2019-2020 timeframe. The IGY was conducted during the maximum part of solar cycle# 19 while the IQSY was conducted during the transition between that cycle and the early part of solar cycle# 20, i.e., at a solar minimum.1 Although most of the scientific studies conducted during both the IQSY and the IGY were focused on the interactions the Sun’s radiation and particle outputs had with the upper atmosphere and space environment around the Earth (frequently seen as visible aurora, for example), the IGY program also had a special interest in studying the Antarctic continent and its environs. That is why the IGY logo (Figure 3) had the meridian globe (representing the Earth) tilted toward the back at the top so the southern pole would be more visible. The orbit with a satellite circling the logo globe is a reminder that the world’s first satellites were launched during that project and contributed significantly to its success These facts are mentioned because the IGY logo was an integral part of the IQSY project logo. See Figure 4. In this latter logo, the IGY logo is shown superimposed over the Sun. The Sun’s central disk has no “spots” on it indicating that it is at the solar minimum part of its cycle. Text circling these graphics reads: “International Year of the Quiet Sun” and the years “1964 – 1965”. Some simplified versions of the IQSY logo just show the Sun disk with the radiation waves and, of course, no sun spots. Examples Figure 3 - IGY Logo of these can be seen as part of the Figure 4 - IQSY logo, Soviet Soviet envelope cachet and special version postmark designs shown in Figure 1.

A close up view of that 1 January 1964, first-day postmark is shown in Figure 2. This postmark was used to cancel a set of IQSY stamps the Soviet Union issued on 1 January 1964 to commemorate that

Figure 1 – Soviet pre-stamped envelope and 1 Jan 64 postmark commemorating the IQSY

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Figure 2 - Soviet IQSY first day postmark

international project. These stamps are shown in Table 1.

The postmark was applied in either of two colors: black (used at the main Moscow postoffice) and red (used at the Moscow International postoffice). These postmarks are cataloged as Winick# 944 & 944A; Pfau# S-86; Yakobs# 1220 & 1221. An example of the red-ink version can be seen canceling the first day cover in Figure 5.

As seen in Table 1, each of these stamps shows a different combination of the IQSY logo graphic elements with the 6kopeck version having the one closest to the actual logo design. Each of these stamps also include the words “International Year of the Quiet Sun” in Russian and the dates, 1964, 1965. Note that the 4-kopeck stamp design was also printed on the IQSY envelope (Figure 1) so that no stamp had to be added to it to mail that cover. On the other hand, the IQSY design in the 10-kopeck stamp was used as the major part of the graphic image in the first-day postmark seen in Figure 2.

First day covers (FDCs) for these Soviet IQSY stamps were mostly created using the IQSY, pre-stamped, artistic envelope. This envelope had a production date of 4 December 1963 (Orlov# 2876; ZagorskiEnv# 9; Pfau# G-78) and so was available for this use on the stamp’s issued date on 1 January 1964. An example of one of these FDCs is shown in Figure 5. The Soviet philatelic export agency, Kniga, also produced FDCs for overseas collectors. These typically contained all three of the IQSY stamps as shown in Figure 6.

Only one of the Soviet collector clubs created covers commemorating the IQSY. This was the club at Tartu in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. This club created their own unique, artistic-envelope and clubcachet designs that included a modified version of the Sun element from the IQSY logo. These can be seen in the registered cover shown in Figure 8. The IQSY club cachet (Figure 7 above right) includes two space rockets and the words “International Year of the Quiet Sun” in Estonian.

These were applied to their club covers in four different colors: red, violet, green, and yellow. The red versions were printed on the envelopes while the other colors were applied by hand.

Figure 5 - FDC for one IQSY postage stamp using the red Moscow International postmark

Figure 6 - Kniga FDC for all 3 IQSY postage stamps

Table 1 – Soviet IQSY Postage Stamps

Stamp Image

Scott#

2839

2840

2841

Pfau#

116

117

118

Pevzner#

3137

3138

3139

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Government philatelic organizations from several of those non-Soviet nations also issued or created philatelic commemorations of the IQSY in the 1963 to 1966 timeframe.

A comprehensive, illustrated listing of these issues can be found on the Hillger-Toth Collective Philatelic Works web site.

Interestingly neither Russia or any of these other countries have chosen (at least so far) to issue or create commemorations for this 50th anniversary. Perhaps some will be released soon.

1

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

2

Figure 8 – Tartu registered IQSY club cover

Scientists and organizations from the Soviet Union as well as over 70 other nations participated in the IQSY project.

Reichman, James, Philatelic Study Report 2007-1, Kniga FDCs with Space Symbolics, 5 September 2007, p. 211.

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See their IQSY items at: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/ hillger/iqsy.htm

Two Interesting postcards from Nik Steggall. The Gagarin one with the curious cachet showing Yuri travelling on top of a rocket is for the Fourth Anniversary of his flight and perhaps the Moon Walking one is a reference to current under employment status of some NASA astronauts ????

Below Nick has attached some images which may be of interest regarding the destroyed Soyuz 36 (Soviet Hungarian spaceflight). An image showing the differences between the 1979 and 1980 stamp. There are very few of the 1979 stamps.

The other images show the difference between the 1979 and 1980 badges .

1979 and 1980 versions

1980 and 1979 versions

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North Korea’s Satellite Forays North Korea entered the world of space when it launched its first satellite in 1998, explains Nik Steggall. This satellite Kwangmyongsong 1, meaning Bright Star, (see photo above) was launched on the 31st August by the Paektusan rocket from the Tonghae launch site in the north east part of North Korea. This satellite although not tracked into orbit was commemorated by a stamp and souvenir sheet issue, right.

The second satellite launch took place on the 5th April 2009. This time Kwangmyongsong 2 used the Unha 2 rocket and was said to have been an experimental communications satellite, reportedly broadcasting revolutionary songs. It too was commemorated by a stamp and souvenir sheet issue, below right A third satellite, Kwangmyongsong 3, was unsuccessfully launched on the 13 th April 2012 from the Sohae launch site. This Unha 3 launch vehicle exploded after 90 seconds when it neared the end of its first stage burn. The satellites intended use was for the observation of the Earth and also for weather forecasting : souvenir sheet below.

Also from Nik an autographed cover by the first Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei and the second is an autographed photograph of the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang

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Orbit awarded at Scottish Congress on Cosmonautics Day 2014 As readers may recall, your editor entered a competitive display for the first time ever last Autumn: cf Orbit #100 p8ff., where he said he would try to improve his exhibit—on the ISS—taking into account the critique he received for his entry into the BTA Cup, when he submitted material to the 85th Annual Congress of the Association of Scottish Philatelic Societies, to be held at Perth 11-12 April.

This time Jeff also entered some recent copies of Orbit into the Literature Competition.

Orbit was awarded 82 pts and a Large Silver Gilt medal and The James Merrylees Trophy in the form of a Quaich.

The reworked ISS two frame entry received 79 pts and a Small Silver Gilt.

Photos on this page taken by Scottish member Bob Catto show Jeff receiving the Quaich from Dr David Kindley.

Congress President, and a presentation of a framed print of a Herschel telescope from our esteemed Chairman Emeritus Margaret Morris on behalf of the Society for the 100th issue of Orbit and 20 years of service as Editor. Flowers were also presented by Margaret for Jeff’s wife Eve who designs our front covers and also serves as ASSS Treasurer.

Margaret had received the award on behalf of the Society at the Congress dinner the previous night as Jeff was returning from holiday and was unable to attend. So rather appropriately he first laid hands on the trophy on Cosmonautics Day 2014 !

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