Orbit issue 78 (June 2008)

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ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 78 June 2008 Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

COMMITTEE Chair :

Margaret Morris, 55 Canniesburn Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 1RX (E-mail: MMorris671@aol.com)

Hon. Secretary: Brian J.Lockyer, 21, Exford Close,Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset BS23 4RE (E-mail : brian.lockyer@tesco.net)

Compiler of Checklist / Hon Treasurer / Postal Packet Organiser Harvey Duncan,16, Begg Avenue, Falkirk, Scotland FK1 5DL (E-mail: duncan1975@btinternet.com)

Orbit : Editor

Jeff Dugdale, c/o Elgin High School, Elgin, Moray.

Scotland IV30 6UD (E-mail: jefforbited@aol.com)

Webmaster

Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Road, Walkington, Dublin 12 (E-mail: dclarke@utvinternet.com)

Postal Auction Organiser:

David Saunders, 42 Burnet Road, Bradwell, Great Yarmouth. NR31 8SL.

Overseas Representatives:

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

Germany:Jurgen P. Esders, An der Apostelkirche 10, 10783 Berlin Eire:Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Rd, Walkinstown. Dublin 12.

France: Jean-Louis Lafon, 23 Rue de Mercantour, 78310 Maurepas Netherlands: Bart Beimers, NJ Haismasrt 7, 9061 BV Gierkerk Russia: Mikhail Vorobyov, 31-12 Krupskaya Str, Kostroma United States: Dr Ben Ramkissoon, 3011 White Oak Lane, Oak Brook, Il 60521 USA

ASSS website at URL:

www.asss.utvinternet.com/

Life Members: UK - Harvey Duncan, George Spiteri, Ian Ridpath, Margaret Morris, Michael Packham, Dr W.R. Withey, Paul Uppington, Jillian Wood. Derek Clarke (Eire,) Charles Bromser (Australia.)

Tom Baughn (U.S.A.,) Ross Smith (Australia,) Vincent Leung Wing Sing (Hong Kong.)

Mohammed K.Safdar (Saudi Arabia)

Copy Deadline for the October 2008 issue is Sept 14th by which time all material intended for publication should be with the Editor. © Copyright 2008 The Astro Space Stamp Society.

No article contained herein may be reproduced without prior permission of the Author and the Society.

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ORBIT

FROM ATOM TO NUCLEAR POWERED SPACECRAFT PART 3: ROCKETS and MISSILES : Part 1

by John Beenen

INTRODUCTION (301. USSR 1968, WB 227) Before I start to talk about nuclear missiles which after WW II were of major importance in the so-called Cold War and still today determine the nuclear armament race, I first have to explain some abbreviations used within this subject and without it its development cannot be told easily : please refer to panel

opposite.

Reference nuclear warfare one generally distinguishes between massive nuclear war in which A-bombs and H-bombs are used and the more tactical and smaller applications of nuclear arms. Especially for the latter a complete new dimension was added to the weaponry with the development of nuclear missiles for the short, medium and long range.

Serpukhov-15 showed that an American missile was heading for the Soviet Union. Fortunately the then co mma nder C ol onel Stanislav Petrov considered this event as an error in the unreliable Soviet defence system and took no countermeasures.

As a principle for such applications three families can be distinguished: 1. conventional cruise missiles 2. cruise missiles with nuclear warheads 3. ballistic missiles (generally also with nuclear warhead(s) The anti-ballistic missiles (ABM), missiles against missiles, can be considered as a separate class

(302. Stanislav Petrov in old age) But it became much tenser when the system showed that another one, and a third, and a fourth and a fifth might have been fired.

Even then Petrov stayed cool and continued to blame his system. By deciding this Petrov in his own probably prevented a gigantic escalation. Still his superiors were not so cool and Petrov was transferred by the Soviet authorities. The incident only came to light in 1988.

Even then he was not honoured by the Russians but by the Americans.

Fortunately the German V-2 rockets did not carry a nuclear charge, but in a way they were already the forerunners of the present sophisticated ballistic missile systems.

In the course of the Cold War the Americans as well as the Soviets constructed a considerable missile force, in which every new system created a resulting further deterrent reaction from the other side

Also during the Cuba crisis such an incident happened when the American battleships were steaming up to Cuba and met a Soviet submarine and threw depthcharges.

The proliferation resulting from it came especially to light in the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, where the Soviets wanted to locate medium-range (2500 miles) missiles on Cuba as a reaction to the mounting of Jupiter missiles in Turkey by the USA, with its culmination on October 28th 1962 when the then President Khrushchev recalled his ships and missiles.

The Soviet commanders were convinced that a war had been broken out and were on the edge to fire a torpedo with a nuclear warhead. But for such a launching an unanimous decision of all three th Perhaps the situation on September 26 1983 was even commanders was necessary and one commander, more dangerous when the Soviet defence system in Vasili Arkhipov was against. Hence, nothing 3

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nuclear warhead and could cover a distance of around twenty-five kilometres. Between 1951 and 1973 over 7000 were manufactured. After that they were replaced by MGM-52 Lance, but stayed operational until 1982.

happened. At a conference in commemoration of 40 years after the Cuban Crisis Mr Robert McNamara admitted that the world had just escaped a major disaster.

In the meantime the amount of missiles was so large that each of them would have been able to destroy the other to a great extent. But it also could be expected that every attack would lead to a counter-attack as with every strike enough missiles would be left undamaged.Such an equilibrium in destroying force is called the principle of ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’, also ‘Nuclear deterrence’

Nike (304. Nike Zeus, Formosa 1969, WB 4) After Honest John the American Army from 1945 developed the Nike project as a missile against aeroplanes up to an altitude of 20 km (Surface to Air, SAM). In 1953 the system became operational with the name MIM3 Nike-Ajax and Nike batteries were located around inhabited areas and strategic spots.

In 1963 this led inevitably to the Partial Test Ban Treaty, between the USA, USSR and the UK, by which it became prohibited to carry out nuclear tests under water, in space and in the atmosphere.

(303. USA 1948, WB 1) The first rockets were designed in the USA after the father of the German V-2 rocket, Wernher von Braun, was captured after WW II and his whole team of over 100 men was transferred to the States. In White Sands they were provided with the facilities to make further developments from rockets to missiles.

Initially, 1000 missiles were manufactured and then a additional 240. Later modifications are known as NikeHercules (MIM-14), Nike-Zeus A and B (LIM-49), and Spartan (LIM-49A), which together with Sprint, built up the defence system Sentinel, via which nearly the whole area of the United States was covered. Later this was replaced by a simpler (and cheaper) system protecting only the ICBM installations - Safeguard.

The rise of the ICBM systems diminished the need of the Nikes and moreover, in 1972 they became part of the ABM treaty SALT-1, by which most of these systems were deactivated. Finally, their production was postponed and in 1963 phased out in favour of a more specific ABM system based upon the Thor rocket.

On the Soviet side parts of the V-2 project, managed by Helmuth Gröttrup, were transferred to the Soviet Union where they were used for further development.

Besides this more or less private development of rockets the three units of the American Army, Air Force and Navy had their own independent programmes.

The development of the ABM systems changed completely when the MIRV’s appeared, missiles with multiple warheads. The consequences were vast as for every warhead a separate missile had to be available to destroy it. This was to increase the price for an ABM system to an unacceptably high level, yet apart from the decrease in efficacy.

Finally, today many countries possess their own missiles and missile systems. In the course of the years over 500 different systems have been developed divided over more than twenty countries. Hence, it is clear that they cannot all be discussed in this series. So we shall limit ourselves to the most important systems and those which have something special; but still, that will be many.

Also this led directly to the ABM treaty of 1972 by which limitations were imposed on such provisions.

Every country was to possess only one ABM system with 100 capture missiles to protect one source. The USA chose the Grand Forks Air Force Base in NorthDakota. But their Safeguard system was only active for a short while as on June 13th 2002 the USA withdraw from the treaty.

THE AMERICAN MISSILES Honest John The first surface to surface missile (SSM) in the armoury of the American Air Force was the MGR-1 Honest John.

It had a solid fuel load and was transported in three parts on a truck.

The parts were put together and the missile was launched on the spot. It could be provided with a small

(305. Little Joe, Abkhasia 1999, LOL 10090 ABK 2) Another missile of the surfaceto-air type had been developed by the end of WW II against 4

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Japanese kamikaze airplanes—the Little Joe. A further development of this rocket later was used for the escape towers of Mercury and Apollo capsules.

Corporal, Sergeant, Snark Based upon the technology of the V-2 the Army also developed a guided missile with a nuclear warhead, MGM-5 Corporal. This liquid fuelled missile could fly about 100 km but was very unreliable. Also the toxicity of its fuels (smoking nitrous acid and hydrazine) and its prolonged and longlasting starting procedure were problematic. Thus, in 1964 it was replaced by the MGM-20 Sergeant, which was much easier to handle because of its solid fuel system. From 1972 this system was replaced by the MGM-52 Lance.

Gorbatchov agreed to nuclear arms reduction.

Redstone (306. Redstone, Upper Volta 1973, WB 86) Some of the rockets mentioned before were already used, mostly in slightly adjusted form, for the launching of spacecrafts.

But it became really interesting with the development of the PGM-11A Redstone, which among others was used for the launching of the Chimpanzee Ham and the ballistic flights of Shepard and Grissom.

Also the American Air Force possessed its own missile, the Northrup SM-62 Snark, An ICBM with a nuclear warhead, actually an unmanned airplane with a flying range of about 10.000 km.

Codes The attentive reader will have noticed that all American missiles are known by a three letter system followed by a number. This system is called MDS Designation (Mission-Design-Series). The number refers to the goal of the specific project and the letters have meaning as given in the table above right.

Lance The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical missile system used to provide both nuclear and nonnuclear general fire support. For the American Army this missile fulfilled a great many requirements such as: being highly mobile, medium-range, fin stabilized, all weather type, surface-to-surface. Its primary goal was to attack key enemy targets beyond the range of cannon artillery such as command and logistic installations, airfields, firing positions, large troop concentrations and transportation centres, bridgeheads and main supply routes. The missile was boosted by pre-packed liquid fuel and could cover a distance of about 120 km.

In August 1958 the Redstone rocket also was used for the first nuclear test at high altitude in the Pacific. In the project ‘Hardtack’ Redstone carried two nuclear charges of 3,75 MT to altitudes of 77,8 ( Teak: 01-0858) and 43 km (Orange: 12-08-58) where they were detonated.

Jupiter, Juno (307. Different USA rockets, Paraguay 1964, WB 205) A direct descendent of Redstone was the PGM-19 Jupiter IRBM also based upon liquid oxygen, Lox and hydrocarbons, RP-1.

The missile system became known as the ‘neutron bomb’ after the Washington Post had published an article about the fact that it could carry a warhead which would kill people but reduced the destruction of buildings and collateral damage to civilian populated areas. Unfortunately such an effect is only partly true which we will discuss later.

Modified Redstones with additional stages with solid fuel were used for a series of nose cone tests (Jupiter C). Many believe that if the Americans had used this Jupiter C rocket in space they could have had the first satellite in space around December 1956. The Eisenhower administration however, wanted to have a civil rocket in space in favour of a military rocket such as

The system stayed in use until 1993 and disappeared only after the Presidents George W.Bush Sr. and 5

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decision as they did not like it. In fact, they were removed in April 1963, an action which appeared to come out as a positive response to the Cuban missile issue.

Vanguard. Hence, von Braun was not permitted to launch his Jupiter C (308. Vanguard, Komi 1999, LOL 9965 KOM 7/12D) Unfortunately the Vanguard rocket failed several times and the government forced by the success of the Soviet Union with their Sputnik had to choose for another option. On January 1st 1958 the Explorer I was launched with the a modified Jupiter C combination, afterwards re-baptized in Juno I.

Pershing (309. Cover (below left) Pershing 16-11-1960) The MGM-31 Pershing was a family of two-stage missiles on solid fuel meant to replace Redstone. The first missile was launched on February 25th 1960. From 1964 on it was operational from four platforms in Western Germany. Ultimately 750 were built .

They were replaced by Pershing II, more flexible, and with smaller warheads, the possibility for a nuclear warhead which could penetrate deep into the earth, a so-called ‘bunker buster’ and a MARV (Manoeuvring Re -entry Vehicle). Another adjustment followed making the missile more similar to the Russian SS 20 and increasing its range with the use of the light and extreme plastic, Kevlar, to 1600 km. 380 of the Pershing II were built also serving in Western Germany until 1985.

The fuel tanks of Redstone MRBM and Jupiter IRBM were fitted together with eight Jupiter IRBM engines thus making the first stage of the Saturn I and Saturn IB space rockets. Late in the sixties the Redstone was used for military re-entry experiments and also, in 1967, put the first Australian satellite ‘Wresat’ in space. The series of Redstones modified for Australia was named ‘Sparta’.

The Jupiter rockets also were used for other space flights such as of the monkey ‘ Gordo’, who died after his parachute failed to open, but also for the successful launchings of the monkey’s ‘Able’ and ‘Baker’.

The systems were put out of use on May 27th 1988 as part of the ‘Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty’. 15 missile were kept for exhibition.

Thor (310. Thor, Dominica 1973, WB 8, Launching of Tiros 7) The first ballistic missile was the PGM -17 Thor, opera tional between 1959 and 1963. Next to the Jupiter of the American Army this was the rocket of the Air Force. Apart from military applications it has been used also for many space events under the name Thor-Delta.

The Jupiter rocket was also used for military applications. After President Charles de Gaulle refused these rockets permission to be fired from French territory, the Americans left for Italy and Turkey. From 1961 to 1963 to squadrons with 30 rockets and nuclear warheads were placed in Italy. A third squadron with 15 rockets was located in Turkey in the neighbourhood of Izmir.

In fact this was the direct introduction to the Crisis, because the Soviets could not tolerate rockets that close to their borders. Apart from these rockets were not necessary at all as they relatively aged at that time already.

Cuba such that, were

The range of the Thor is rather large at 2400 km. This distance makes it possible that Moscow could be hit from a base in the UK. It also had the advantage over Jupiter that it fitted into the American carrier airplanes which increased its suitability but it had to be put together on the spot. For its use in space travel a second stage was mounted originating from the Vanguard with the name ‘Able’. Together with a third stage the Thor-Able-Star combination was suitable for the launch of Pioneer I (11-10-1958) to the Moon, but the mission failed after 77 seconds because of a defect in the turbo engine. The combination was more successful in launching the first American communication satellite in space, Courier 1B (04-10-1960) and the first tandem launch of the military satellites Transit 2A and Solrad 1 on June 22nd 1960.

Therefore, in 1961, President Kennedy had ordered their removal, but the Air Force had delayed this

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Liquid oxygen is a very dangerous substance certainly in a closed area as a silo. Thus, several Atlas and Titan rockets exploded in their silos killing many workers. In August 1965 53 workers died when a hydraulic liquid caught fire in a silo in Arkansas. In the same way in another silo a nuclear warhead of 3000 kg was blown into the air.

By 1959 the NASA had asked Douglas to develop a fourth edition of the Thor combination, named ThorDelta as Delta was the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. Thor-Delta launched for instance Echo I. To differentiate it from the military applications the rocket for space travel after that was called only Delta. Delta served for 45 years servicing about 300 launchings of which 95% were successful. The rocket was gradually upgraded. The fourth version, Delta D, also was called Thrust-augmented Thor (TAT)

Most Titan rockets were developed from the Titan II ICBM with a nuclear warhead of 9 MT. Titan with the second stage Agena-D was destined for the launch of espionage satellites. By adding solid fuel rockets Titan II was formed, and by further modification Titan IV, by which among others Cassini was launched into the direction of Saturn.

The TAT and the Thor-Agena were also modifications to launch espionage satellites (Recon) within the Corona programme (Discoverer 4,13, 38, Samos E-1, E-2) Atlas (311. Atlas, Paraguay 1967, WB 537) The first successful American ling-distance missile (ICBM) was the HGM-16 Atlas-F, which was copied by the Soviets as directed by their chief-designer Sergei Korolev, as their R-7.

In the late eighties, and triggered by the great many accidents, Titan was replaced by the solid fuel missile 50 MX Peacekeeper Peacekeeper (MX) The LGM-118A Peacekeeper, also called ‘MX’, is a ground located ICBM operational from 1986. Within the non-ratified START II Treaty (cancelled by the Russians in 2002) it was agreed that the system would be dismantled in 2005 and that only the LGM-30 Minuteman would remain. Although the START Treaty did not become in operation Peacekeeper was abandoned in 2005.

The R-7 was tested for the first time in August 1957 and carried the first Sputnik on October 4th 1957.

Peacekeeper was a four-stage MIRV missile, thus with multiple warheads, in this case ten, each of them 300 kT and altogether over 25 times more powerful than the bomb on Hiroshima. In practice the missile was launched from its silo first and its rocket engines only were ignited some ten meters above the ground.

Finally, the amount of missiles was limited to 50 and also a subsequent project by which the missile should be transported by train was cancelled.

Atlas missiles were stored in vertical position in silos in clusters of 12 to 15 missiles. They were launched from the ground. In the middle of the sixties the Atlas and his larger brother, the Titan, was slowly replaced by the solid fuelled LGM-30 Minuteman, which could be stored for a prolonged period and could be launched without additional fuel in stead of Atlas which was designed for liquid fuel of the type Lox/RP-1. The Atlas rocket also was used for space investigations such as the launch of the Mariners and some Mercury and Gemini missions including that of the first American to orbit, John Glenn on February 20th 1962.

The costs of the Peacekeeper project were gigantic and amounted to 20 milliard dollar (up to 1998) for 114 missiles of 400 million dollar each for each operational missile. Above it came the firing costs of 20-70 million dollar each. Apart from the costs also the development and testing of the nuclear missiles did not always go as planned. A series of accidents happened by which the airplane with nuclear load was lost. Most of these weapons could be recovered but some of them were not.

The Atlas rocket is considered as one of the most successful rockets of the American space programme.

Titan (312. Titan 2, Upper Volta 1973, WB 84) The Titan was also a very successful space rocket. In fact Titan was a whole family of rockets launched between 1959 until 2005.

It was designed for liquid fuel (Lox/ RP-1) and as such it was not a rocket which could be manoeuvred very quickly.

The filling and launching lasted about half an hour.

Minuteman The LGM-30 Minuteman also is a ground based ICBM and from 2006 the only operational ICBM system of the USA. It is supported by the sea-launched SLBM Trident and by long-distance bombers with nuclear loads. The Minuteman, however, is not cheap. One missile costs $33,5 million which may rise to $48,5 million.

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Russia possesses Kh-55SM rockets with the same flying range as the Americans, about 3000 km, but they also have an improved version, X-555, with a heavier load (200 kT)..

The present defence system consists of 500 Minuteman III missiles placed in silos in three locations in the USA. Minuteman is a guided missile based on a three-stage rocket on solid fuel and a last stage a booster with a liquid fuel system. However START finally did not get underway and the plan to prohibit missiles with multiple nuclear warheads is of the table and Minuteman possesses a MIRV system.

India and Russia together developed the supersonic BrahMos, the UK and France the Storm Shadow, Germany and Sweden the Taurus and Pakistan, the Babur, very similar to the Tomahawk after an American Tomahawk missile landed by accident on Pakistani territory.

Minuteman has been in operation since 1970 and is modernized regularly. It therefore looks possible to keep it operational until 2025. Minuteman I and II were operational between 1960 and 1997, Minuteman III started already in 1969. Originally it was planned that Peacekeeper would be Minuteman’s successor but finally the opposite happened.

STRATEGIC DEFENCE (STARWARS)

INITIATIVE

And then out of the blue President Ronald Reagan announced on March 23rd 1983 the Strategic Defense Initiative commonly called ‘Starwars’ to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.

Tomahawk (cruise missile) To hit an enemy over a longer distance actually two systems are in use: the ballistic systems as discussed before and the cruise missiles.

Cruise missiles are low-flying guided missiles mostly provided with small wings and driven by a rocket engine. As a principle they are quite similar to an unmanned airplane. Apart from conventional loads they also could carry a nuclear warhead. They can carry up to 500 kg of explosive material and mostly are meant against ships or bunkers. The guidance is carried out by radar or infra-red or by a build-in navigation system by GPS or ordnance maps.

The description ‘Starwars’ for the project is thought to have been used for the first time by one of its opponents, Dr.Carol Rosin, a consultant and former spokesman for Werher von Braun. Of course, the supporters of the system asserted that this nickname gave a total false impression of what SDI really is.

Due to the massive opposition of subsequent governments and the extremely high costs it was never fully developed or deployed, but in recent years the initiative was picked up again by the Bush government under the name BMDO (Ballistic Missile Defense Organization).

The first cruise missile was the ‘Kettering Bug’ in 1917 designed WW I. It never came into use as the war was ended before it was ready. The V-1 in WW II was a kind of cruise missile.

(313. Regulus cover, 8-6-1959) After the war the Americans experimented in the ‘Project Pluto’ with cruise missiles with nuclear loads ending up with the ‘Regulus’. Also the Soviet Union had their cruise missiles.

The most well-known American cruise missile still in use is the BGM-109 Tomahawk. This missile also is used by the British and the Dutch Navy.

Compared to Peacekeeper and Minuteman the Tomahawk missiles are cheap costing $500.000 dollar and with all accessories added, $ 1,4 million.

In total 4170 have been produced, he whole project cost $ 11,2 milliard.

The Tomahawks exist in several variations. The type which could be launched from a truck was destroyed as a result of the ‘Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty’ of 1987 The American Air Force uses its AGM-86. Both missiles have been intensively used in the operation ‘Desert Storm’ and the Kosovo war. Out of it the Americans have developed special versions with nuclear loads of 5 to 150 kT.

The SDI was not the first US defence system against nuclear ballistic missiles. We already mentioned the Sentinel and the Safeguard Programmes from the sixties. Also the Soviet Union developed a missile defence system in the seventies.

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The concept of the use of space for a strategic defence system was first given in 1979 by Lieutenant General Daniel O.Graham. The initial focus of the system was a nuclear explosion powered X-ray laser designed at the Livermore National Laboratory by a scientist, Peter Hagelstein, working with a team called the ‘O Group’.

This led directly to the speech of President Reagan mentioned before.

Space Treaty of 1967 which forbade the installation of weapons in space, the ABM Treaty which limited missile defences to one location per country at 100 missiles each, and the NPT Treaty as it supported nuclear disarmament. Opponents criticized SDI also because it disrupted the strategic doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction, which was rejected by the Reagan government as a ‘suicide pact’.

The system also contained the development of a ground -based defence system named ERINT (Extended Range Interceptor), later developed into the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3). In 1983 the first tests with this system were made.

Also SDI was not seen to be effective against a great many other arms such as cruise missiles, bombers and other methods.

Dr Hans Bethe, a nuclear scientist, meant that the Xray laser offers: ‘No prospect of being a useful component in a system for ballistic missile defence’.

He was strongly countered by one of the inventors of the H-bomb, Dr. Edward Teller. Still the developments within the SDI programme go on and are even reinstituted by the present American administration under its new name BMDO.

But the X-ray system and the ground-based systems were just some of the systems under research within SDI. Other systems were: Mid Infra-red Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL), Neutral Particle Beam (NPB), Hypervelocity Rail Gun (CHECMATE, Compact High Energy Capacitor Module Advanced Technology Experiment), Laser and mirror experiments (HPTE, High Precision tracking Experiment) with use of the LACE satellite, the Space Base Interceptor, Brilliant Pebbles, watermelon-sized mini-missiles with a high velocity kinetic warhead and different sensor programs SDI envisioned many space-based systems in fixed orbits.

Of the 12 experiments carried out within the present project according to the Pentagon seven were successful. We may expect that even today from all satellites orbiting around us, there certainly are some of them fitting within the SDI programme, and about which we do not know anything; A frightening thought.

The American SDI programme was intensively discussed at the President Reagan – Gorbatchov Summit in Reykjavik in October 1986. But on this subject the two world leaders disagreed.

In the continuation of Part Three of this series in our next issue, John Beenen covers Missiles Launched by Ships, The Peace Movement, Soviet Missiles and Missiles from other states.

The deployment of a SDI programme would mean that the United States had to modify, withdraw from, or violate previously ratified treaties such as the Outer

Weltraum Philatelie e. V. presents new full colour catalogue of space stamps

continents.

Bibliographical indications: Dipl.-Ing. D. Steinbrecher, Weltraum Philatelie Motivkatalog Raumfahrt und Astronomie – Europa, 446 Seiten, ISBN 978-3929659-02-3, Kosmonautik-Verlag, Sinzig.

The results of a true herculean effort have been presented by German space stamp collectors: a catalogue showing all space stamps ever issued in Europe and Russia. The publication of the catalogue has been sponsored by Weltraum Philatelie e. V., the German association of space stamp and cover collectors.

From Albania through Yugoslavia – on 456 (!) pages, author Dieter Steinbrecher has been assembling, describing and scanning all space stamps issued up tp the end of 2007.

“This catalogue caters for the needs of collectors who wish to collect, sort or exhibit space and astronomy stamps”, Steinbrecher explains The numbering system of the German Michel catalogue is used but no values are given.

Price per copy: 55 Euro plus postage.

A CD-Rom of the catalogue (pdf) is available for 20 Euro + postage.

Contact Florian Noller e-mail: florian@spaceflori.com Postal address: Florian Noller, Postfach 1320, D - 71266 Renningen Germany Payment can be made by bank draft, cash payment or through Paypal.

Florian Noller, President of “Weltraum Philatelie”, is very enthusiastic about the publication: „Each and every single stamp is reproduced in colour, not just a single stamp standing as an example. This has never been done before.”

A scan of an inside sample page is available on request from JPEsders@web.de

The giant effort doesn’t even end here: in the years to come, „Weltraum Philatelie“ intends to add volumes 2 to 5 to their catalogue, assembling the space stamps issued on other

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 26

By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

The San Marco Series This is the twenty-sixth in a series of articles about unmanned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the Italian San Marco-series satellites. Five San Marco satellites were successfully launched, starting with San Marco-1 on 15 December 1964, and ending with San Marco-D/L on 25 March 1988. Only San Marco-D/M failed (in 1983). In addition, the San Marco satellites were preceded by two San Marco suborbital rockets launched in 1963.

San Marco is not only the name of a series of satellites, but also is the name of a floating launch facility located near the Earth’s equator off the coast of Kenya, close to the town of Malindi. The San Marco sub-orbital launches and that of San Marco-1 were from Wallops Island VA, but the remaining San Marcos as well as several other satellites were launched from the San Marco platform. One of those other satellites was Explorer-42/Uhuru, the first American satellite launched by a foreign team. (The Explorer satellites were covered in the 16th article in this series.) The San Marco platform appears on two of the stamps issued by Paraguay in 1966 (Scott 962 and 963).

The non-striped images of the satellites on the Ecuador, Panama, and Paraguay stamps have an appearance that is more like that of Vanguard-2, and include a launch attachment that is reminiscent of some of the Vanguard1 images seen on stamps. This common, but likely incorrect, image of San Marco-1 on all these items may be the result of the same designer working on them.

Another possibility is that multiple designers may have been influenced by an incorrect reference image of the satellite in their stamp designs, or the incorrect image propagated from one stamp to another.

The final satellite in the series, San Marco-5 (D/L), was about 1 m in diameter with wider rows of equatoriallymounted solar panels, and no stripes. This was the last satellite launched from the San Marco platform. This satellite appears on only two stamps, one issued by Comoro Islands and the other by Italy.

A checklist of postal items showing San Marco-series satellites (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/ SanMarco.htm) is available on the Website developed by the authors for the un-manned satellites featured in this series of articles (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/ hillger/satellites.htm).

E-mail correspondence is welcome.

Don Hillger can be reached at hillger@cira.colostate.edu and Garry Toth at The San Marco satellites were designed to measure air garry_toth@hotmail.com. density at orbital altitude, as well as to monitor ionospheric characteristics. San Marco-1 and 2 were spherical in shape, to provide a constant cross section to eliminate the need for satellite attitude control and simplify the determination of atmospheric drag through observations of changes in the satellite’s orbit. The satellites had telemetry and command antennas attached to the spherical body.

San Marco-3 and 4 were a bit larger and consisted of two parts: a heavier internal structure and a lighter outer shell. A series of flexible arms connected the two parts. Stresses in the flexible arms caused by atmospheric drag were used to determine the air density at orbital altitude. These San Marcos employed an attitude control system and a spin rate control system, and were powered by rows of solar panels mounted equatorially on the inner core.

According to available documentation, the first four San Marco satellites had black and white longitudinal sections painted on their surface for thermal control.

However these stripes are often not reproduced on postal items showing the satellites. Moreover, in cases where the stripes are shown, they are red and white (see the stamps from Ajman, Manama, Micronesia, and Poland) rather than black and white.

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for March/April 2007 10

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Remarkable Coincidence for Second Generation Spacefarers

Philatelic Literature Review

By Bruce Cranford (March 08) “Philatelic Study Report, 2008-1, Back of the Envelope - Revisited,

by James G. Reichman, 10 March 2008 Privately printed, Mesa, Az., USA” Philatelic literature is an essential part of any collector of space stamps/covers hobby or business. Anyone who is interested in Russian envelopes or space covers should have Jim Reichman=s Back of the Envelope - Revisited report as part of their philatelic literature. I found it very useful in providing information about the Russian prestamped envelopes. Jim explains the arcane Russian text on the back of the envelopes and postcards and converts it into intelligent and useful information.

Jim identifies each item on the back of the envelope including the date printed, production quantities, the factory where the envelope was printed, the artist, costs, to name a few. He has identified the history of each from the early 1950's to present, and provides information on the variations and inconsistencies found.

The 49 pages report of full of tables, graphics, pictures, and explanatory text. The information density is very high. This is not light reading, but the information gained is worth the effort.

When cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, (right) currently on board the ISS as a member of the Expedition 17 team, returns to Earth in October he will do so in the same craft as British-born American entrepreneur and sixth space participant Richard Garriott, (below right) who has made his fortune in computer games and is vice-chairman of the Space Adventures company.

Garriott is slated to fly to the ISS in Soyuz TMA-13, currently due to launch on 12th October along with Salizhan Sharipov and Michael Fincke.

What is remarkable is that both men are the only two ever to have flown in space in the footsteps of their fathers.

Volkov’s father is veteran Alexander A. Volkov of Soyuz T-14, Soyuz TM7 and I thank Jim for his hard work and diligent effort to gain Soyuz TM13. In 1991 Volkov went into space as a and document this information on Russian covers. This Soviet citizen but returned as a Russian when the USSR report is an essential part of my philatelic literature political union broke up during his flight. Garriott’s library. father is Dr Owen Garriott, who flew on one of the Skylab missions in 1973 and on STS-9 ten years later.

Electronic copies of this report are available. for $10 plus shipping. Contact Jim at jgreichman@datawest.net or 3165 East University Drive, Lot#350, Mesa, AZ 85213 to Images of the fathers appear on covers but not on any stamps known to your Editor. get a copy.

Caveat Stamp Collector !

If you are reading this, the chances are that you are already hooked on several aspects of our hobby, writes your Editor, but have you ever thought that such an obsession (if it is that) might cost some collectors their financial security, their partner and their emotional health ?

Such is the case for writer Simon Garfield, extracts from whose book The Error World were printed in The Daily Mail for April 5th and which you might like to take a look at. (See opposite for the end of the article).

Garfield explains that he took up collecting like so many other boys and then lost interest before returning to specialise in collecting modern British errors, the pleasures of doing which he writes eloquently about. But he would such spend substantial amounts of cash, that he had to hide his collection away in a drawer and got so little pleasure when showing it as those who looked it over were somewhat underwhelmed.

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ORBIT

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ORBIT

Russia (2.7.07) 50th anniv of Plesetsk Cosmodrome (below) 50r shows rocket on launch pad

New Issue Guide

St Kitts (3.1.07) Luna 9 4 x $2 Giotto and Halley’s comet 6 x $1.60 ISS on $5 MS

Noted in STAMP Magazine (Nov 07—June 08) so no SG nos given

Singapore (12.11.07) National Library Board Programme 26c and $1.10 show space objects

Bulgaria (25.4.07) 50th anniv of Sputnik 1.00l showing craft, Earth and moon

Sudan (20.10.07) Rascom General Assembly Meeting 4 vals show Rascom logo and satellite over Africa

Ghana (22.1.07) Luna 9: 4 x 1000c values Apollo XI, showing Aldrin—1 x 2000c ASTP : 6 x 6500c values + 2000c MS Viking 1 landing on Mars— 1 x 2000c Giotto Probe : 6 x 6500c values

TAAF (21.6.07) Course of the Sun at Dumont d’Urville Base 90c photomontage of sun between 10.25 am / 2.53pm

Great Britain (26.7.07) Scout Centenary 1st NVI shows Scout looking at stars and referring to Moonwalkers who were scouts.

Ireland (25.5.97) The Planets 2 x 55c showing Jupiter and Neptune 2 x 78c showing Saturn and Uranus

Tuvalu (21.9.06) 4 x $1.30 showing space shuttle and ISS $3 Calipso deployed in space 6 x $1 flight of Discovery Ukraine (12.4.06) Ukrainian Contribution to Space Exploration 3 x 85k showing Koronas 1 (Sun probe), cosmonaut outside ISS and Halley’s comet Ukraine (28.4.06) Europa 2006—Young artists’ view of integration 2.50G Saturn 3.50G Jupiter and comet

Lebanon (2.7.07) ITU World summit on ICT 100l Earth seen from space

United (25.5.07)

Nevis (11.9.07) 30th anniv of Viking on Mars 4 x $3

States

Star Wars films—15 x 41c in a sheetlet showing characters from films

New Zealand (6.6.07) Southern Skies: Astronomical Observatories and Photos Five values New Zealand (31.8.07) Huttpex 2007 Stamp Exhibition 2 x $2 shows observatories and astronomic phenomena Poland (4.1.07) 15th Holiday Orchestral Concert Heart with Saturn-like rings and moon Poland (15.6.07) 3.55zl Copernicus planetarium (1955) Russia (18.10.06) 10th anniv of membership of Council of Europe 8.00r shows Earth as seen from space Russia (9.11.06) 15th anniv of Regional Commonwealth in Communication : 5r satellite dish and Moscow TV tower Russia (12.4.07) 50th anniv of Sputnik (above right) 10r shows Sputnik and 2 x 20r Korolev and Tsiolkovsky

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ORBIT

Shuttle Story : 1997—STS -81, -82, -83, -84, -94, -85, -86, & -87 STS-81 was the fifth of nine planned missions to Mir and the second one involving an exchange of U.S. astronauts. Astronaut John Blaha, who had been on Mir since September 19, 1996, was replaced by astronaut Jerry Linenger.

Linenger spent more than four months on Mir. He returned to Earth on Space Shuttle Mission STS-84.Atlantis carried the SPACEHAB double module providing additional middeck locker space for secondary experiments. During the five days of docked operations with Mir, the crews transferred water and supplies from one spacecraft to the other.

The STS-81 mission included several experiments in the fields of advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences, microgravity, and space sciences. It was hoped that data would supply insight for the planning and development of the International Space Station, Earthbased sciences of human and biological processes, and the advancement of commercial technology.

Flight

STS-81

Commander Pilot

Michael Baker Brent Jett

MS MS MS MS up MS down

Jeff Wisoff John Grunsfeld Marsha Ivins Jerry Linenger John Blaha

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing

12.1.1997 22.1.1997

STS-81 involved the transfer of 5,975 pounds (2,710 kg) of logistics to and from the Mir, the largest transfer of items to date. During the docked phase, 1,400 pounds (635 kg) of water, 1,137.7 pounds (516.1 kg) of U.S. science Purpose / MIR Docking equipment, 2,206.1 pounds (1,000.7 kg) of Russian logistics along with 268.2 Main Payload SPACHAB pounds (121.7 kg) of miscellaneous material were transferred to Mir. Returning to Earth aboard Atlantis were 1,256.6 pounds (570.0 kg) of U.S. science material, 891.8 pounds (404.5 kg) of Russian logistics and 214.6 pounds (97.3 with the Mir 22 cosmonauts after a brief stay on the station. kg) of miscellaneous material.

First Shuttle flight of 1997 highlighted by return of U.S. astronaut John Blaha to Earth after 118-day stay aboard Russian Space Station Mir and the largest transfer to date of logistics between the two spacecraft. Atlantis also returned carrying the first plants to complete a life cycle in space — a crop of wheat grown from seed to seed. This fifth of nine planned dockings continued Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative effort, with Linenger becoming the third U.S. astronaut in succession to live on Mir. Same payload configuration flown on previous docking flight — featuring SPACEHAB Double module — were flown again.

Blaha had joined Mir 22 crew of Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer Alexandr Kaleri on September 19, 1996, when he arrived there with the crew of STS-79. Linenger was to work with the Mir 22 crew until the arrival in February of the Mir 23 crew of Commander Vasili Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and German researcher Reinhold Ewald. Ewald was to return to Earth

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Docking occurred at 22:55 EST, January 14, followed by hatch opening at 00:57 January 15. Linenger officially traded places at 04:45 with Blaha who spent 118 days on the station and 128 days total on-orbit.

The crew also tested on Shuttle the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (TVIS), designed for use in the Russian Service Module of the International Space Station. Another activity related to International Space Station involved firing the orbiter's small vernier jet thrusters during mated operations to gather engineering data. (Source : Wikipedia)

ORBIT

Flight

STS-82

Commander Pilot

Ken Bowersox Scott Horowitz

MS MS MS MS PS

Steven Hawley Mark Lee Gregory Harbaugh Steven Smith Joe Tanner

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

11.2.1997 21.2.1997

HST Servicing

STS-82 demonstrated anew the capability of the Space Shuttle to service orbiting spacecraft as well as the benefits of human spaceflight. The crew completed servicing and upgrading of the Hubble Space Telescope during four EVAs and then performed a fifth unscheduled space walk to repair insulation on the telescope.

HST deployed in April 1990 during STS-31. It was designed to undergo periodic servicing and upgrading over its 15-year lifespan, with first servicing performed during STS-61 in December 1993. Hawley, who originally deployed the telescope, operated the orbiter Remote Manipulator System arm on STS-82 to retrieve HST for second servicing at 3:34 a.m. EST, Feb. 13, and positioned it in payload bay less than half

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Mission Impossible (first time) !

This mission was originally launched on April 4, 1997, and was intended to be on orbit for over 15 days but was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 and Columbia landed on April 8, after 3 days 23 hours. NASA decided to fly the mission again as STS-94, which was launched on July 1 of the same year The primary payload was the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL), a collection of microgravity experiments housed inside the European Spacelab Long Module (LM). It built on the cooperative and scientific foundation of the previous International Microgravity Laboratory missions on STS-42, STS-65, STS-50, STS-73, STS-47, STS-78, SYS-61A and STS-55 MSL featured 19 materials science investigations in 4 major facilities. These facilities were the Large Isothermal Furnace, the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack, the Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) and the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM) facility, the Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) and the Combustion Module-1 Facility. Additional technology experiments were to be performed in the Middeck Glovebox (MGBX) developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the High-Packed Digital Television (HI-PAC DTV) system was used to provide multi-channel real-time analog science video.

The Large Isothermal Furnace was developed by the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) for the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission and was also flown on STS-65 IML -2 mission. The Combustion Module-1 (CM-1) facility from the NASA Lewis Research Center housed experiments on Laminar Soot Processes Experiment and the Structure of Flame Balls at Low Lewis-number Experiment (SOFTBALL). The Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) was designed to investigate the fundamental combustion aspects of single, isolated droplets under different pressures and ambient oxygen concentrations for a range of droplet sizes varying between 2 and 5 mm. The DCE apparatus is integrated into a single width MSL Spacelab rack in the cargo bay.

The EXPRESS rack replaced a Spacelab Double rack and special hardware provided the same structural and resource connections the rack had on the Space Station. It housed the Physics of Hard Spheres (PHaSE) experiment and the Astro/PGBA Experiment.

The Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) is used for the Experiments on Nucleation in Different Flow Regimes, Thermophysical Properties of Advanced Materials in the Undercooled Liquid State Experiment,

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Flight

STS-83

Commander Pilot

James Halsell Susan Still

PC MS MS PS PS

Janice Voss Donald Thomas Michael Gernhardt Roger Crouch Greg Linteris

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Payload

4.4.1997 8.4.1997

Microgravity Sciences Lab.

Measurements of the Surface Tension of Liquid and Undercooled Metallic Alloys by Oscillating Drop Technique Experiment, Alloy Undercooling Experiments, the Study of the Morphological Stability of Growing Dendrites

by Comparative Dendrite Velocity Measuremetns on Pure Ni and Dilute Ni-C Alloy in the Earth and Space Laboratory Experiment, the Undercooled Melts of Alloys with Polytetrahedral Short-Range Order Experiment, the Thermal Expansion of Glass Forming Metallic Alloys in the Undercooled State Experiment, the AC Calorimetry and Thermophysical Properties of Bulk GlassForming Metallic Liquids experiment and the Measurement of Surface Tension and Viscosity of Undercooled Liquid Metals experiment.

(Source: Wikipedia)

ORBIT

The STS-84 mission was the 6th Shuttle/Mir docking mission and involved the transfer of 7,314 pounds (3,318 kg) of water and logistics to and from the Mir. A highlight was the transfer of the fourth successive U.S. crew member to the Russian Space Station. British born U.S. astronaut Michael Foale exchanged places with Jerry Linenger, who had arrived at Mir January 15, 1997 with the crew of Shuttle Mission STS-81. Linenger spent 123 days on Mir and just over 132 days in space from launch to landing, placing him second behind U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid for most time spent on-orbit by an American. Another milestone reached during his stay was one-year anniversary of continuous U.S. presence in space that began with Lucid's arrival at Mir March 22, 1996.

Other significant events during Linenger's stay included first U.S.Russian space walk. On April 29, 1997 Linenger participated in fivehour extravehicular activity (EVA) with Mir 23 Commander Vasili Tsibliev to attach a monitor to the outside of the station. The Optical Properties Monitor (OPM) was to remain on Mir for nine months to allow study of the effect of the space environment on optical properties, such as mirrors used in telescopes.

STS-84 docking with Mir occurred May 16 at 10:33 p.m. EDT above the Adriatic Sea. Hatches between two spacecraft opened at 12:25 a.m., May 17. Greetings exchanged between STS-84 crew and Mir 23 Commander Vasili Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and Linenger, followed by a safety briefing. Linenger and Foale officially traded places at 10:15 a.m. EDT. Transfer of items to and from Mir proceeded smoothly and was completed ahead of schedule. One of first items transferred to station was an Elektron oxygen-generating unit. The research program planned for Foale featured 35 investigations (33 on Mir, two on STS-84, and another preflight/postflight) in six disciplines: advanced technology, Earth observations and remote sensing, fundamental biology, human life sciences, space station risk mitigation, and microgravity sciences. Twenty-eight of these were conducted during previous missions and were to be continued, repeated or completed during Foale's stay. Seven new experiments were planned in biological and crystal growth studies and materials processing.

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Flight

STS-84

Commander Pilot

Charles Precourt Eileen Collins

MS MS MS MS MS

Michael Foale Carlos Noriega Ed Lu Jean-François Clervoy Yelena Kondakova

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

5.5.1997 24.5.1997

Sixth Shuttle-MIR Docking / Crew Transfer

Undocking occurred at 9:04 p.m. EDT, May 21. Unlike prior dockings, no flyaround of the station by the orbiter was conducted, but orbiter was stopped three times while backing away to collect data from a European sensor device designed to assist future rendezvous of a proposed European Space Agency resupply vehicle with the International Space Station.

Other activities conducted during the mission included investigations using the Biorack facility, located in the SPACEHAB Double Module in Atlantis’s payload bay, a photo survey of Mir during docked operations, environmental air samplings and radiation monitoring.

(Source: Wikipedia)

In the mission patch design note the Greek letter Phi with one stars to mark the Phase One Program and the Russian word for MIR surrounded by six stars. The seven stars represent the seven modules then comprising MIR

ORBIT

STS-83 Flies Again !

Flight

This was a reflight of the STS-83 Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, with identical crew and objectives, details of which appear on page 20. MSL was originally launched on April 4, 1997 at 2:20 p.m. EST and was intended to be on orbit for 15 days, 16 hours. The mission was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 and Columbia landed on 4/8/97 after 3 days 23 hours.

Commander Pilot

PC MS The primary payload on STS-83 / STS-94 was the Microgravity MS Science Laboratory (MSL). MSL was a collection of microgravity PS experiments housed inside a European Spacelab Long Module PS (LM). It built on the cooperative and scientific foundation of the International Microgravity Laboratory missions (IML-1 on STS-42 and IML-2 on STS-65), the United States Microgravity Laboratory missions (USML-1 on STS-50 and USML-2 on STS-73), the Japanese Spacelab mission (Spacelab-J on STS-47), the Spacelab Life and Microgravity Science Mission (LMS on STS-78) and the German Spacelab missions (D-1 on STS-61-A and D-2 on STS-55).

MSL featured 19 materials science investigations in 4 major facilities. These facilities were the Large Isothermal Furnace, the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack, the Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) and the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM) facility, the Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) and the Combustion Module-1 Facility. Additional technology experiments were to be performed in the Middeck Glovebox (MGBX) developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the High-Packed Digital Television (HI-PAC DTV) system was used to provide multichannel real-time analog science video. (Source: Wikipedia) The crew insignia as shown on the above launch and landing cover differs from STS-83 only in having a blue border, where the original patch has a red one. The circle in the centre symbolises a free liquid under microgravity conditions representing fluid and material science experiments.

Symbolic of the combustion experiments is the surrounding starburst of blue flame burning in space.

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STS-94 James Halsell Susan Still Janice Voss Donald Thomas Michael Gernhardt Roger Crouch Greg Linteris

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Payload

1.7.1997 17.7.1997

Microgravity Sciences Lab.

The unique double-flight crew of STS-83 and STS-94, with commander and pilot either side of the mission patch logo

ORBIT

Jeffrey S. Ashby was originally assigned to STS-85 which was to be his first, but resigned from this mission to take care of his late wife, who was dying from cancer. He was replaced by Kent Rominger and allowed to fly STS-93 instead.

The deployment and retrieval of a satellite designed to study Earth's middle atmosphere along with a test of potential International Space Station hardware highlighted NASA's sixth Shuttle mission of 1997. The prime payload for the flight, the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the AtmosphereShuttle Pallet Satellite-2 (CRISTA-SPAS-2) made its second flight on the Space Shuttle (previous flight STS-66 in 1994) and was the fourth mission in a cooperative venture between the German Space Agency (DARA) and NASA. During the flight, Davis used Discovery's robot arm to deploy the CRISTA-SPAS payload for about 9 days of free-flight. CRISTA-SPAS consists of three telescopes and four spectrometers that measured trace gases and dynamics of the Earth's middle atmosphere. Davis also operated the robot arm for CRISTA-SPAS retrieval. The Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) on which the scientific instruments were mounted is a self-contained platform that provides power, command, control and communication with Discovery during free-flight.

Two other instruments mounted on the SPAS also studied the Earth's atmosphere. The Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Instrument (MAHRSI) measured hydroxyl and nitric oxide by sensing UV radiation emitted and scattered by the atmosphere, while the Surface Effects Sample Monitor (SESAM) was a passive carrier for state-of-the-art optical surfaces to study the impact of the atomic oxygen and the space environment on materials and services.

Flight

STS-85

Commander Curtis Brown Pilot Kent Rominger MS MS MS MS

Jan Davis Richard Curbeam Stephen Robinson Bjarni Tryggvason

KSC Launch Date EAFB Landing Purpose / Main Payload

7.8.1997 19.8.1997

CRISTA-SPAS 02

The Microgravity Vibration Isolation Mount (MIM) experiment was operated by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason. The MIM experiment is a small double-locker size device designed to isolate International Space Station payloads and experiments from disturbances created by thruster firings or crew activity. MIM was The crew also supported the Manipulator Flight Demonstration (MFD) operated for 30 hours with real-time data experiment being sponsored by NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency. MFD transmission to investigators on the ground. consists of three separate experiments located on a support truss in the payload bay. The primary objective was to demonstrate the newly designed dexterous Another experiment onboard STS-85 was robot arm in the space environment, before installing on the Japanese the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station.

(SWUIS-01) from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) along with scientific Several Hitchhiker payloads, including the Technology Applications and Science collaborators from JPL, APL, and the Payload (TAS-01), the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (SEH), and U n i v er si t y of M a r y l a n d.

SWUIS the Ultraviolet Spectrograph Telescope for Astronomical Research (UVSTAR) (pronounced, "swiss") was a wide-field UV were housed in Discovery's payload bay, (as shown in the mission patch) imager which was used to observe comet operating independently of crew support during the flight.

Hale-Bopp, also depicted top right of mission patch. (Source: Wikipedia)

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ORBIT

Highlights of the 10 day mission included five days of docked operations between Atlantis and Mir and the exchange of crew members Foale and Wolf to continue a permanent American presence of the Russia complex. A spacewalk retrieved the four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads which were attached to the Mir's docking module by Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford during STS-76 to characterize the environment surrounding the Mir space station.

Atlantis carried the SPACEHAB double module to support the transfer of logistics and supplies for Mir and the return of experiment hardware and specimens to Earth .

The seventh Mir docking mission continued the presence of a U.S. astronaut on the Russian space station with the transfer of physician David A. Wolf to Mir. Wolf became the sixth U.S. astronaut in succession to live on Mir to continue Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative effort.

Foale returned to Earth after spending 145 days in space, 134 of them aboard Mir. His estimated mileage logged was 58 million miles (93 million kilometers), making his the second longest U.S. space flight, behind Shannon Lucid's record of 188 days On July 30, NASA announced that Wendy Lawrence, originally assigned to succeed Foale on Mir, was being replaced by Dr David Wolf. The change was deemed necessary to allow Wolf to act as a backup crew member for the space walks planned over the next several months to repair Spektr. Unlike Wolf, Lawrence could not fit in the Orlan suit that is used for Russian space walks and she had not undergone space walk training. (See obvious addition

of his name to mission patch)

Docking of Atlantis and Mir took place at 3:58 p.m. EDT, Sept. 27, with the two mission commanders opening the spacecraft hatches at 5:45 p.m. Wolf officially joined the Mir 24 at noon EDT, Sept. 28. At the same time, Foale became a member of the STS-86 crew and began moving his personal belongings back into Atlantis.

First joint U.S.-Russian extravehicular activity during a Shuttle mission, which was also the 39th in the Space Shuttle program, was conducted by Titov and Parazynski. During the five-hour, one-minute space walk on Oct. 1, the pair affixed a 121 pound (55 kg) Solar Array Cap to the docking module for future use by Mir crew members to seal off the suspected leak in Spektr's hull.

Parazynski and Titov also retrieved four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads (MEEPS) from the outside of Mir and tested several components of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) jet packs. The space walk began at

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Flight

STS-86

Commander James Wetherbee Pilot Michael Bloomfield MS MS MS MS MS

David Wolf Wendy Lawrence Jean-Loup ChrĂŠtien Vladimir Titov Scott Parazynski

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

25.9.1997 6.10.1997

Shuttle-Mir Docking/Transfer

1:29 p.m. EDT and ended at 6:30 p.m.

During the six days of docked operations, the joint Mir 24 and STS-86 crews transferred more than four tons of material from the SPACEHAB Double Module to Mir, including approximately 1,700 pounds (771 kg) of water, experiment hardware for International Space Station Risk Mitigation experiments to monitor the Mir for crew health and safety, a gyrodyne, batteries, three air pressurization units with breathing air, an attitude control computer and many other logistics items. The new motion control computer replaced one that had experienced problems in recent months. The crew also moved experiment samples and hardware and an old Elektron oxygen generator to Atlantis for return to Earth. Undocking took place at 1:28 p.m.

EDT, Oct 3. After undocking, Atlantis performed a 46 minute fly-around visual inspection of Mir. (Source: Wikipedia)

ORBIT

STS-87 flew the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4), the Spartan-201, the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), the EVA Demonstration Flight Test 5 (EDFT-05), the Shuttle Ozone Limb Sending Experiment (SOLSE), the Loop Heat Pipe (LHP), the Sodium Sulfur Battery Experiment (NaSBE), the Turbulent GAS Jet Diffusion (G-744) experiment and the Autonomous EVA Robotic Camera/Sprint (AERCam/Sprint) experiment. Two mid-deck experiments are the Middeck Glovbox Payload (MGBX) and the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment (CUE).

The United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4) is a Spacelab project managed

by Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The complement of microgravity research experiments is divided between two Mission-Peculiar Experiment Support Structures (MPESS) in the payload bay. The extended mission capability offered by the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) kit provides an opportunity for additional science gathering time.

Spartan 201-04 is a Solar Physics Spacecraft designed to perform remote sensing of the hot outer layers of the sun's atmosphere or corona. The objective of the observations were to investigate the mechanisms causing the heating of the solar corona and the acceleration of the solar wind which originates in the corona.

Two primary experiments are the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the White Light Coronograph (WLC) from the High Altitude Observatory.

The Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF) was a sophisticated materials science facility used for studying a common method of processing semiconductor crystals called directional solidification. Solidification is the process of freezing materials. In the type of directional solidification to be used in AADSF, the liquid sample, enclosed in quartz ampoules, was slowly solidified along the long axis. A mechanism moved the sample through varying temperature zones in the furnace. To start processing, the furnace melts all but one end of the sample towards the other. Once crystallized, the sample remains in the furnace to be examined post-flight. The solidification front is of particular interest to scientists because the flows found in the liquid material influence the final composition and structure of the solid and its properties.

The Confined Helium Experiment (CHeX) provides a test of theories of the influence of boundaries on matter by measuring the heat capacity of helium as it is confined to two dimensions.

The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) is a materials science solidification experiment that researchers will use to investigate a particular type of solidification called dendritic growth. Dendritic solidification is one of the most

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Flight

STS-87

Commander Kevin Kregel Pilot Steven Lindsey MS MS MS MS

Winston Scott Kalpala Chawla Takao Doi Leonid Kadenyuk

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

19.11.1997 5.12.1997

Spartan USMP 4

common forms of solidifying metals and alloys. When materials crystallize or solidify under certain condition, the freeze unstably, resulting in tiny, tree-like crystalline forms called dendrites. Scientist are particularly interested in dendrite size, shape, and how the branches of the dendrites interact with each other. These characteristics largely determine the properties of the material.

(Source Wikipedia)

The mission patch is helmet shaped to symbolise the EVA element of the mission.

Three red lines coming out of the orbiter’s payload bay represent the astronaut symbol and the robot arm used to deploy and retrieve the Spartan satellite. The letters μg represent the microgravity science experiments. The flag of Ukraine is also included by Kadenyuk’s name.

ORBIT

Intercosmos Retrospect : Bulgaria June 1988

26

ORBIT

F.d.c’s for the issue of the sole Soviet stamp commemorating the flight of Soyuz TM-5 cancelled on launch day 7.6.88.

Left at Moscow and below at Zvezdny Gorodok (Starry Town) showing the new Glavkosmos logo in cancel and cachet

1987 Bulgarian mini-sheet issued to commemorate 30 years of Soviet space achievement, showing various Soviet spacecraft, from top clockwise, Sputnik, Zond, Luna, Vostok and Mars.

In the centre of the lower stamp is a Mir-Soyuz complex but this does not represent the failed Soyuz 33 Soviet-Bulgarian flight as this failed to dock with Salyut 6 in 1979.

27

ORBIT

Intercosmos Retrospect : Afghanistan August 1988 The agreement for the joint Soviet-Afghan mission had been signed in February 1988 with the original intention to fly in 1989, but because the Soviet union was beginning to withdraw its 100,000 troops from Afghanistan in mid-May the political situation for the 1989 launch could not be guaranteed. So it is likely the early date was to ensure that Afghan puppet leader was in power during the flight as he might not have been six months later. Nevertheless training objectives had to be compromised to accommodate the new launch date.

Included on the flight was the first researcher-cosmonaut—a physician Dr Valeri Polyakov—who had been a reserve for T3 and T10 having first begun training for a mission in 1972 ! Dr Polyakov remained behind on Mir with cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov when Mohmand and Lyakhov returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5.

Its crew had a unique makeup, with a commander (Vladimir Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz-TM solo in the event of a rescue ship being needed to recover two cosmonauts from Mir, no flight engineer, and two inexperienced cosmonaut-researchers.

The other was Intercosmos cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, from Afghanistan. Mohmand’s experiment programme was dominated by a series of observations of Afghanistan, called Shamshad. Soviet flight control did not want Mohmand to interfere with the flight procedures.

engine had permitted them to do so, they would not have been able to re-dock with Mir because they had discarded the docking system along with the orbital module.

Re-entry occurred as normal on September 7. After this the Soviets retained the orbital module until after deorbit burn, as they had done on the Soyuz Ferry flights.

(Sources : Wikipedia, Spaceflight and Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log [1961-2006]).

The flight was marked by an issue from USSR SG 5911 on 29th Augusts showing a Soyuz ferry docking with Mir-Kvant high over Earth with a symbolic handshake beneath it.

Ironically the flight and stamp issue occurred as Soviet forces were forcibly subduing Afghan mujaheidein rebels / patriots on the ground !

Afghanistan issued one stamp : SG 1214

On September 5 cosmonauts Alexandr Lyakhov and Abdul Ahad Mohmand undocked from Mir. They jettisoned the orbital module and made ready for de-orbit burn to return to Earth.

However, unbeknownst to the cosmonauts or the Mission Control Centre in Korolev (TsUP), the guidance computer was using the docking software of the Bulgarian Mir mission in June ! The de-orbit burn did not occur at the appointed time because the infrared horizon sensor could not confirm the proper attitude. Seven minutes after the scheduled time, the sensor determined that the correct attitude had been achieved. The main engine fired, but Lyakhov shut it down after 3 seconds. A second firing 3 hours later lasted only 6 seconds. Lyakhov immediately attempted to manually de-orbit the craft, but the computer shut down the engine after 60 seconds.

According to James Oberg ( Secrets of Soyuz), in order to restart the automatic descent program for the second burn attempt, Lyakhov had to instruct the computer to ignore the first shutdown. It was therefore running down its checklist as though the first burn had been successful and the ship was on a normal re-entry trajectory. The next item on that checklist was to jettison the Equipment Module, which contained, among other things, the primary propulsion system – the very system they needed to de-orbit. Mohmand, disregarding a directive to sit back and let Mission Control assess the situation, had scanned the ship’s gauges and displays, and discovered that separation was going to take place in less than a minute. Lyakhov quickly disabled the program. Had he not done so, he and Mohmand would have perished, as the Soyuz Descent Module had only enough air and battery power for a couple of hours.

The cosmonauts were forced to remain in orbit a further day in the cramped quarters of the Descent Module with minimal food and water and no sanitary facilities. Even if the main

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Sensationalised pool press report in The Press & Journal (Aberdeen) published on 7.9.88

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The World’s Oldest Astronomy and Space Stamps Our English member Ian Ridpath well known as a published author on Astronomy and Astrophilately presents the second of a two part article which gives you a flavour of what can be found in much more detail on his website on the historical aspect of our topic.

compressed air from one Post Office to another. Such systems were set up in several European and American cities, including Rome, Naples, and Milan. Italy was the only country to issue stamps specifically for pneumatic postal use. Galileo appeared on two of the designs, from 1933 and 1945.

An attractive set commemorated the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo in 1942. The four stamps (which

Astronomers

Famous scientists are popular subjects for commemorative issues, and form the largest category of pre-1957 astro stamps. The first astronomer to be appeared in colour on the front of our last edition) showed Galileo teaching at the University of Padua, where he was appointed professor of mathematics in 1592; Galileo demonstrating his new telescope at Venice in 1609; a portrait of the great scientist; and Galileo at home in Arcetri, where he was kept under house arrest by the Inquisition from 1633 until he died.

depicted philatelically was Nicolaus Copernicus, who appears on two stamps from his home country, Poland, issued in 1923 to commemorate the 450th anniversary of his birth. These modest little stamps are not too expensive and can be obtained from specialist eastern European dealers. Copernicus, or memorials dedicated to him, turn up on another eight Polish issues prior to 1957. Three of these, in 1940, 1942 and 1943, were issued while Poland was under German occupation.

The first country other than Poland to show Copernicus on a stamp was China in 1953. A portrait of Copernicus by the Polish artist Jan Matejko was used on this Soviet stamp from 1955 celebrating Soviet–Polish cooperation.

Another great scientist, Galileo, makes three appearances on this list, all from his home country of Italy. Two of the issues are distinct oddities, being issued for use in pneumatic postal systems.

Pneumatic post involved placing letters in canisters which were then shot along pipes by

Two other astronomers who revolutionized our understanding of the Universe, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, are also honoured on pre-1957 stamps. Tycho, regarded as the greatest astronomer of the pre-telescopic era, is pictured on a Danish stamp from 1946, the 400th anniversary of this birth. Tycho famously lost part of his nose in a duel and replaced it with a metal insert, which can be made out on the portrait. Kepler, a German mathematician, used Tycho’s observations to prove that the planets orbited the Sun in ellipses, finally overthrowing the longstanding geocentric view of the Universe. He was first commemorated on a stamp issued in 1953 by Austria, a country where he taught on two occasions during his career.

Finally, one of the greatest scientists of all time, Albert Einstein, made his debut on an Israeli stamp in 1956, the year after his death. Einstein’s theory of relativity was the foundation of modern cosmology and he rightly belongs in an astrophilately collection.

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Astronautics

Unsurprisingly, prior to 1957 there were few stamps with an astronautical theme. The first, issued by the USA, dates from 1948 and marks the centenary of Fort Bliss, a US Army post near El Paso, Texas. Wernher von Braun and other top German rocket scientists arrived at Fort Bliss in 1945 after surrendering to the US Army at the end of World War II. They soon began a series of test flights with modified V2 rockets from the nearby White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, as shown on this stamp.

One of the founding fathers of rocketry was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian mathematics teacher who in 1903 published the first theoretical proof that space travel by rocket was possible. He also realized that multi-stage rockets (which he termed “rocket trains”) would be needed to escape from Earth, and proposed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuels, a combination that is widely used today. Tsiolkovsky featured in a set of stamps commemorating Soviet scientists issued in 1951.

The third and final astronauticalthemed stamp from before 1957 was issued by Italy in 1 9 5 6 t o commemorate the s e v e n t h International Astronautical Congress held in Rome that year.

Prophetically, the design showed a transmitting satellite orbiting the Earth – something that was to come true when Sputnik 1 was launched two days before the opening of the following year’s Congress in Barcelona.

The Earth

To bring our survey of pre-1957 astrophilately to a close, let us return to Earth. Although they are effects of the atmosphere, aurorae are studied by astronomers because of their connection with solar activity. The earliest depiction of an aurora I can find is on a pair of Icelandic stamps from 1934, but it is not very convincing – without the Gibbons catalogue description of it as “monoplane and aurora” you might be forgiven for thinking it was a cloud. Better is the aurora seen streaking the sky over a fishing boat in a 1941 Norwegian

stamp issued in support of the fishermen’s families relief fund. On a French stamp from 1949, the curtain-like folds of an aurora curl in the sky over a party of Antarctic explorers.

Astronomical observations are a fundamental part of surveying and geophysics. Not until the middle of the 18th century was the location of the Earth’s equator established with reasonable accuracy, due largely to a French expedition that included Charles Marie de La Condamine, Pierre Bouguer, and Louis Godin. A new country, Ecuador (named after the equator), later arose in the part of South America where the French scientists worked, and in 1936 issued a set of stamps to commemorate the bicentenary of the arrival of the French expedition. Two other Ecuadorean stamps, from 1949 (right) and 1953, depict the monument that was erected in 1936 to mark the supposed equatorial line, although modern GPS measurements place the true equator about 250 metres to the north of it.

Finally, moving polewards, I particularly like a reflective scene on a 1945 stamp from Greenland in which an Eskimo in a kayak, with the midnight Sun poised on the distant horizon.

Acknowledgements and further reading It is a pleasure to thank George Fox and Margaret Morris for sharing their extensive knowledge of astro stamps during the preparation of my list.

You can find the complete list, with fuller descriptions SG numbers and colour scans, on my web pages:

http://www.ianridpath.com/stamps/ oldest.htm

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The Limits of Space Travel

By John Beenen

“ Our Earth is one of milliards of planets which suffered the fate to carry all worries, troubles and sorrow, to produce living creatures of a higher nature gifted with sense and to take care of their spread over other galaxies … I do not want to talk somebody into it, but, I am convinced of it. Since my early years and the following forty years, after I got contact with another form of civilization by a kind of ‘radiation energy’, I saw my task clearly … Our science, however, is not to blame as we only find ourselves in the sixth stadium of development.

(Konstantin Tsiolkowski : The Cosmic Philosophy 1932.

Quote from ref 2* The Soviet UFO Dossier by Col Dr Marina Popovich) UFO’s, (Unidentified Flying Objects), in French, OVNI (Objets volants non identifiés), are much in our thoughts. Type the phrase ‘UFO’ into a web search and no fewer than 9,940,000 hits appear and for the abbreviation ‘OVNI’ another 1,960,000. Some months ago the French Space stamp trader Lollini in one of its monthly reviews published a rather complete list of all UFO related stamps and sheets. Hence, this subject may be considered as an interesting field at the margins of astrophilately. Therefore I’d like to show what has been issued so far and tell you something about the background and related stories.

The topic of UFOs splits responders into two incompatible positions : either you believe in UFO’s, you are ‘believers’, or you do not, and are ‘non-believers’. In order to clear up things from the beginning I myself am extremely sceptical about the UFO phenomenon and thus belong to the latter group. Together with a great amount of unprejudiced scientists I believe that nearly all UFO connected manifestations in the end can be accounted for by one or more scientific explanations such as: weather balloons, light reflections, also in the optics used, atmospheric disturbances, temperature inversions, air or glass reflections, (ball) lighting, St.Elmo’s fire, rotating plasma clouds, (experimental) aeroplanes, laser and light shows, marsh gases, bright stars and planets such as Sirius and Venus, falling meteorites and today certainly also falling space junk.

Furthermore, certain observations also can be explained by reflections of birds and airplanes such as the U-2 in its early days. Besides that, certainly for some more intensive observations, physical explanations are obvious.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

A very peculiar explanation is given by Julien Weverbergh (ref. 8) who in his – for the most part rather curious – book points to a great many similarities between hurricanes, the area where they are most observed and the observation of UFO’s. Based upon these similarities a couple of phenomena have coincided with the appearance of a UFO, providing a good explanation: UFO’s are often observed in places where also many hurricanes are active - UFO’s move along ‘straight’ lines over large distances - Many UFO’s show the shape of a vortex - UFO’s mostly are twisting around their axis.

- UFO’s mostly are accompanied by phenomena of strong atmospheric electricity - As with hurricanes UFO’s show often also heavy black clouds Unfortunately some other phenomena related to UFO’s are more difficult to explain by the hurricane theory.

- UFO’s appear from nowhere and disappear suddenly: sometimes they split and sometimes they flow together - UFO’s brighten as metal surfaces, - Together with visible light UV-light is reflected, - UFO’s stand still at one place and then suddenly can increase speed tremendously - UFO’s show light phenomena UFO’s evade aeroplanes when they are chased.

But in a way these phenomena are not completely at odds with the hurricane theory. However, it is a pity that the author of the book does not show the same distance to his subject in the following pages.

Yet even from present common sense there still remain a couple of observations for which up to today no decisive explanation can be given and of course these are the most interesting phenomena.

What are UFO’s?

A definition of UFO’s is given by one of the most prominent UFO investigators, Dr.J.Allen Hynek (19101986) in his book from 1972:

“A UFO is the reported sighting of an object or lights seen in the sky or on land, whose appearance, trajectory, actions, motions, lights, and colours do not have a logical, conventional or natural explanation, and which cannot be explained, not only by the original witness, but by scientists or technical experts who try to make a common sense identification after examining the evidence”.

* all Refs will be detailed at the end of the series.

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And that immediately identifies the problem. Persons observing a UFO, certainly from a very short distance, often are so full of emotions that a neutral observation is virtually impossible. Moreover, the phenomenon mostly only occurs very briefly and once so that, certainly in the case of lights, proof based upon later scientific investigation is not possible.

Sometimes, however, objects have been seen on radar or pictures have been taken of them. Strangely enough nearly always these photos are out of focus or nothing can be seen on the photograph after it is developed.

Explanations for this phenomenon have been given but most of the time they do not convince completely.

Of course, our planet has not been visited by millions of extraterrestrial creatures, in which case sufficient proof in the form of identifiable remains would be left behind.

This phenomenon is known as ‘Fermi’s Paradox’. Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), a famous nuclear physician, who among other things stood at the start of the development of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb, explained in 1946 that the Universe contained hundreds of milliards of stars. If even a very small fraction of them were encircled by planets which had developed technological civilizations, there must be a very large number of such civilizations. If any of these civilizations produced cultures which colonized over interstellar distances, even at a small fraction of the speed of light, the Universe should have been completely colonized in no more than a few million years. Since the Universe is billions of years old Earth should have been visited and colonized long ago. The absence of any evidence for such visits is the Fermi Paradox.

Frank Drake, President of the SETI Institute (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), even has developed a formula by which via calculation of eight parameters he tried to calculate how many extraterrestrial civilizations exist. The drawback of this formula is that most of the factors can be estimated only within a very wide area, so that everybody may obtain the result which he likes best.

I support the opinion that all observations, even those which are ‘non-identifiable’ today, finally shall receive a scientific explanation, but it is a fact that some observations even using the most advanced techniques, cannot be explained at this time.

Unfortunately, after experts have investigated many observations, it has been proven that after many years many stories have been shown to be not completely reliable anymore. Witnesses were not traceable or were mentally less stable than initially was admitted; documents by which the event was ‘proven’ could not be found; objects had disappeared or after analysis were shown to be made from common material; statements were conflicting or very colourful and some witnesses finally admitted that it was one great joke.

But one very striking and different example is that of the lost crew of a Russian Antonov airplane in 1961. The plane took off from a base at Sverdlovsk with a crew of seven members. After a short flight of about 150 km it suddenly disappeared from the radar screens. After investigation by a couple of helicopters and a large number of troops the plane was found back on a tiny spot in the woods completely surrounded by trees. It looked if the plane had just been dropped there from above. The crew was nowhere. When the engine was started it ran like normal. In the near surroundings initially no traces were found but about 100m from the plane a circle of about 30m of flattened grass was observed. The case remains unsolved because the only witnesses, the crew, were lost forever.

However, another source (www.skepticfiles.org) reports a similar case in the neighbourhood of Tobelak in Siberia where a small transport plane with four passengers, still with two hours of fuel on board was found without a trace of the crew and the passengers.

Also there in a distance of about 100m a circle of burned grass and broken soil was found. Both incidents cannot be confirmed. Even the standard book on Soviet UFO’s (ref.2) gives no indication whatsoever.

Hence it has to be supposed that this is one of the ‘urban legends’ which makes UFO history so difficult to believe.

Though the observations on UFO’s show many differences some characteristics are quite similar: - With a few exceptions mostly UFO’s fly without a sound or with a slight whistling or buzzing sound, even with speeds far exceeding the supersonic.

- UFO’s accelerate like mad and take right angels without standstill - UFO’s sometimes become invisible, spilt in two or melt together - UFO’s often radiate very penetrating light beams - UFO’s seem invulnerable to bullets.

Historical perspective Some events from the past are a mystery. At the end of the 1950’s Erich von Däniken had much success with his book entitled: “Was God an Astronaut ?” in which he described a great many inexplicable

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excavations and remains such as the Inca Ruins of Tiahuanacu (Bolivia), the chart of Piri Reis from 1513, the la unch site (?)

Samaibata Bahoia near Santa Cruz (Bolivia), the ‘lines’ of Nazca (Maldives 9324 MLD 5B) and a couple of representations of humans on rocks and cave drawings with helmets (?), strange objects and space suits (?).

Also in the mountains of Armenia a true astronomic encyclopaedia was discovered originating from around 3000 B.C. but showing details which could not have been observed by the known means from that time.

4. Black Holes (1B) It has been theorized that a spacecraft could use the extraordinary gravitational pull of a black hole to slingshot it into space, thus allowing it to travel farther and faster than it could on his own.

Also very puzzling was the discovery of an instrument with 33 wheels and a differential in Antikythera dating from the first century B.C., which was found in 1900 under water. In Csésiphon – why have all those sites such extraterrestrial names? - in Iraq by Wilhelm König in 1938 an archetype of a dry battery was found dating from 200 B.C., for some people proof of an extraterrestrial civilization, but for me proof that the technological abilities of our ancestors of thousands of years ago did not differ so much from ours today.

6. Explosion at Tsjernobyl On 25th of April 1986 the No.4 nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union exploded. It took hundreds of helicopter missions dropping thousands of tons of sand, clay and boron into the inferno to extinguish the flames. The mystery here lies in the long term effects of the radioactive cloud that spread over most of Europe and deposited large quantities of contaminated particles.

“Mysteries of the Universe” Some of these historical sites have been portrayed on a stamp and are depicted on a series of souvenir sheets or blocks from The Maldives entitled: “16 Mysteries of the Universe”, some of which are shown here (and on page 40 in colour.)

The 16 blocks do not all refer to UFO’s, but also to other unexplained phenomena, yet they are so interesting that I shall discuss all sixteen: 1. Bermuda Triangle (6B) Though several well publicized losses of ships and aircraft have occurred in this region, the debate still continues as to whether this is the coincidence of a heavily travelled area or an unknown phenomenon.

2. UFO over Columbus, Ohio in 1973 In 1973 while flying Columbus, Ohio, four Army officers nearly collided with an unknown object. The illustration is based on sketches made by the officers 3. UFO at Washington 1947 (3B) While flying over Washington State (NW of the USA) in June 1947 Kenneth Arnold saw a group of nine disc shaped aircraft moving at tremendous speed. His later description of the craft gave birth to the term ’Flying Saucer’. The picture can be found on a block issued by Tanzania (9900 TAN 14B) and Maldives (9324 MLD 3B), both shown later on in the article.

5. Crystal skulls from Mitchell-Hedges found in 1924 in the Maya ruins of Lubaantun in Belize, weight 5,3 kg (2B).

These relics are believed to be of Aztec or Mayan origin but little is known about them. It appears that they were created by an ancient culture that would not have had either the tools nor the skills required to create them.

A much more interesting explanation of the mystery I found some years ago in a magazine. In the region of the disaster from old times a story circulated that the world would be destroyed by a flower descending from the air, making all the water in the region undrinkable.

The name of the flower: ‘Chernobyl’.

7. Crop circles in Great-Britain (4B) For over 15 years mysterious crop circles have appeared in the field throughout Southern England.

Laid out in various sizes and patterns, they have long baffled experts and have given rise to explanations to ball lightning. Recently, two artists have come forward to take credit as the hoaxers responsible, yet to many the mystery remained unsolved partly due to the fact that over 2000 circles have been reported worldwide.

8.

The Plain of Nazca (5B) The giant figures of animals and birds cut into the ground at Nazca, Peru can only be seen from the air and may be as much as 2000 years old.

9. The Loch Ness Monster With over 3000 sightings, and dozens of photographs movies and sonar scans “Nessie” still remains a mystery. Some believe it may be a Plesiosaurus, a giant reptile of the age of dinosaurs. However, it has been proven that the most well-known photo of the ‘monster’ was contrived and I myself am sure that this is a great hoax.

10. The Disappearance of Atlantis and the ideas of Plato Greek philosopher Plato gave the first written accounts of Atlantis and its fiery death in the eruption of a volcano.

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11. Stonehenge The giant circle of megaliths each weighing as much as 45 tons was erected in three phases over a span of almost 1000 years. Though many theories exist no one knows the purpose of Stonehenge.

12. The Terrible Snowman from the Himalaya, The Yeti Giant footprints have been encountered in the Himalayan mountain snows since 1887. Sometimes 18 inches in length and 7 inches wide, the tracks have been attributed to the Yeti or Abominable Snowman.

13. The Piramides of Gizeh For more than 40 centuries the Pyramids at Giza have amazed and mystified mankind. The great Pyramid of Cheops in the centre is flanked on the right by Chephren and on the left by Mycerinus. Cheops alone contains over 2 million block each weighing from 2½ to 15 tons.

14. The disappearance of the crew of The Maria Celeste in 1872 In December 1872 The Maria Celeste was found drifting of the coast of the Azores. The ship was abandoned, yet there was no hint of trouble in the log book, the cargo was safely stowed, and the galley and quarters were in order. For over a century the fate of the captain and the crew of the ship have remained an intriguing mystery.

15. The explosion of the Zeppelin Hindenburg on 6 May 1937 On May 6th 1937 the German Zeppelin Hindenburg exploded into flame and crashed while approaching its mooring tower in Lakehurst, New Jersey. While there are several plausible causes for the catastrophe, it is still a mystery as to what really caused the demise of the giant airship.

16. Ghosts in English Castles Numerous Ghosts and spectres are said to haunt the castles and mansions of England, including Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London, and a number of ghosts in the Brede Mansion in Sussex.

To me these 16 mysterious cases have been rather arbitrarily chosen and some of these ‘mysteries’ certainly might be exchanged for more relevant cases, but the whole concept is intriguing.

Historically speaking there are a great many cases known – the above included – for which the explanation is thought by some people to be of extraterrestrial origin and caused by entities visiting our world. As such, the ‘lines’ in the Plain of Nasca are seen as landing strips for spacecrafts as the ‘launching site’’ of Santa Cruz in Bolivia.

Certainly, there are spots on Earth where the activity of the soil and magnetism is stronger that usual. The Bermuda Triangle seems to be an example of this and for instance, Stonehenge. Furthermore, in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge more ‘spacecraft’ have been observed than at other places in England. Also in the south of the Pacific Ocean such a spot is detected, as well as south of Japan in the Pacific. In the Soviet Union a spot of increased activity is observed in the neighbourhood of the city of Perm in the Urals.

Above Loladoff disc Camonica

and below wall painting in Val

A interesting website with a high paranormal content (www.crystallinks.com/) shows an abundance of examples varying from pictures and statues of helmet bearing ‘Gods’ and ‘Aliens’ right up to flying saucers on paintings. Very well-known is a picture of some kind of an alien on a dish 6000 or 12000 of age found together with 715 objects in 1938 in the caves of Bayan Kara Ula in Nepal. It shows an ‘alien’ just as we like to portrait him/her today.

The dish is named after its discoverer, the Polish professor Loladoff, the Loladoff dish and is on display in a museum at Bampu de Xian in China. Another source, however, says that this ‘discovery is a contrived artefact, so caution is advised !

The figures on the cave painting from Val Camonica in Italy look a little bit as astronauts. Other pictures from the same drawings are, however, much less distinct so that the picture shown at the site as mentioned certainly underwent some photoshopping.

On a fresco (right) from the 14th century, as shown here, a spacecraft may be depicted, but I myself think that a more 38

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trivial or religious explanation is more probable.. But there are other such pictures on mediaeval and later paintings.

Very surprising are the representations on pictures from 3000 years ago found at the New Temple of the New Empire at Abydos in Egypt, on which a helicopter, a submarine and an airplane seem to be engraved. See mini-sheet from Antigua and Barbuda

(10100 ANB 47B) on page 40, from which this is an extract. Although an explanation of an extraterrestrial visit looks attractive, it is my opinion that these pictures have a, for us unknown, religious character.

Supporters of visits by entities from outside our world also think that in Holy Books, such as the Bible, Koran and the Indian Mahabaratha, there are many references to the appearance of extraterrestrial entities on Earth.

Van Däniken has devoted a whole chapter to this subject. Mostly the ‘Gods’ appear or disappear riding on wagons covered in smoke and fire : in the Bible especially the descriptions referring to the Prophet Ezekiel are favourites. I do think this is very convincing and it seems what is taken literally is meant as metaphor.

Yet there exist old texts which at least create doubts.

Ancient Chinese chronicles mention an Emperor HwangTi, who reigned in the 26 century B.C. in the region of the Great Winding of the Hwang-Ho, the Yellow River.

This Emperor actually did exist the last year of his government being 2592 B.C. Hwang-Ti and his men were descended from the sky. They did their utmost to teach men how to build ships, dig wells, manufacture musical instruments and apply acupuncture. The Emperor possessed a strange craft on three legs.

Sometimes it changed into a ‘dragon flying through the air’. From time to time Hwang-Ti and his men flew away. The appliance was able to float and to become light or heavy. (ref. 2) And in the ancient Indian epic we read: “At dawn Rama took his seat in the heavenly wagon Poesjpaka … and prepared for the flight. The vehicle had two storeys with many rooms and windows. When the colossus became airborne it made a prolonged tone. The heavenly wagon lighted as fire in a summer night. It looked like a comet in heaven and glowed like red fire” (ref 2).

Also in the Middle Ages and later ‘indications’ were found for the appearance of UFOs. Thus, on a German woodcut from 1561 a large object can be seen which with a bit of good will could be seen as a UFO. Also some others can be seen in the air (Grenada WB 55).

Well-known also is an observation of a UFO above the city of Hamburg, Germany on November 4th 1697 and a strange phenomenon in Orenburg in Russia in 1824

where twice little symmetrical parts of metal fell from the sky.

Yet I support the opinion that an extraterrestrial origin of these phenomena does not do justice to the technological capacities of our ancestors. As in every society sometimes genius and prophets are born far in advance of their time and can do things which stagger contemporaries. Aristarch of Samos (310-230 B.C) (Greece WB 6) knew already that Earth was orbiting Sun and that it was not the other way round. Finally, 5000 years in the history of mankind is still a rather short period, so much wiser we have not become today.

At last, proof for extraterrestrial influence often is taken out of context from texts, findings and drawings especially cited in semi-religious, sectarian, paranormal, metaphysical and other rather elusive circles.

Moreover, these kind of sources often connect everything which is somewhat unclear to UFO’s or visits from extraterrestrials, from the pyramids of Egypt, to the stones of Stonehenge, to the statues at Easter Island, to the murder of President Kennedy up to the appearance of Virgin Mary at Fatima, which does not enhance their credibility for the average down-to-earth observer.

Classification of UFO’s Accordingly, a four-part classification of UFOs has been made by the aforementioned Dr.Hynek; I. II.

III.

Light phenomena without further effect Light phenomena causing physical or physic effects on the observer or the surroundings of the observer, such as the inexplicable cut out of engines, physical feelings, warmth, panic from animals and visible traces on the ground (imprints) or vegetation (burning)..

Observations of entities in or around the UFO

Later a fourth category was added: IV. ‘Abductions’ (in French “enlèvements’), where the observer claims to be taken into the UFO and often inexplicably loses a part of time or is dropped on places far away from the object.

In particular these last two categories require a thorough investigation to exclude jokers, pseudoreligious fanatics and mentally instable figures.

In the following parts of this series I shall take you extensively into these categories.

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