Orbit issue 79 (October 2008)

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Editorial

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 79 October 2008

Retirement ! What Retirement ?

Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

You may have gathered from reading these short pieces that this year has concerned me with regard to the printing and collation of Orbit because I was leaving Elgin High School, having worked there for the past thirty years, the last twenty-three as a member of the Senior Management Team.

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)

I did officially retire at midnight on Sunday August 17th, but within a day had been re-employed on a full timetable teaching my own subject (English) in a school two miles from my home address and I have been enjoying this greatly. I have no idea when this temporary arrangement will come to an end but it may be near Christmas before it does.

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, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Mosstodloch, Moray.

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

Webmaster

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

The relevance to this Editorial of these circumstances is that the expected free time to work on articles and to enjoy my hobbies, sorting out that in-tray / shoebox of stamps (which we all no doubt have) has not materialised as expected but hopefully as things settle in the months ahead that time will eventually come to me. Fingers crossed any way !

Meantime I hope you enjoy this edition.

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

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)

ASSS website at URL:

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Camera ready copy required with remittance by the above stated copy deadline for inclusion in our next edition.

Copy Deadline for the January 2009 issue is December 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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FROM ATOM TO NUCLEAR POWERED SPACECRAFT PART 3: ROCKETS and MISSILES : Part 2 by John Beenen

MISSILES LAUNCHED FROM SHIPS Regulus The SSM-N-8 Regulus was a forerunner of the later Polaris and in itself was already the successor of the MGM-1 Matador rocket of the Air Force developed during WW II. Because the Navy saw this development as a threat to their own position with regard to guided missiles they developed their own system, the ‘Regulus’, after all very similar to the Matador. The Regulus was the first missile with a nuclear warhead and in fact no more than a V-2 with nuclear warhead. The missile was put into service with the Navy from 1955 to 1964.

The missile is interesting because at the beginning of the Cold War it served well as a deterrent especially during the Cuba Crisis.

It was not only the forerunner for later systems such as Polaris and Trident, as above, but also for the BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles carrying a conventional warhead.

A very nice review—in German-showing stamps of ships with nuclear arms on board or nuclear propulsion can be found at: www.dan-online.de/atomschiffe/ Atomschiffe auf Briefmarken (Nuclear ships on stamps) Polaris

After the cruise missile SSM-N-8 Regulus a two-stage solid fuel missile was developed, UGM-27 Polaris, of which the first was launched on July 20th 1960 from the battleship George Washington, which could carry 16 of such missiles. Between 1960 and 1966 40 of such missiles were tested.

After the British abandoned their development of the ‘Blue Streak’ President John F. Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan agreed on April 6 th 1963 that the Polaris also should serve Britain on submarines of the Resolution-class with a slightly adjusted warhead configuration. From 1972 on the missile was gradually replaced by the UGM-73 Poseidon and in the 80’s by the Trident.

Trident ( 3 1 5 .

Submarines of the OhioClass, 2000, USA) The UGM 96 A en de UGM-133A Tridents are three-stage solid fuelled ICBMs with a nuclear loads to be launched from submarines. They have been built in two variations the: I (C4) UGM-96A and the II (D5) UGM133A. They were placed on 14 submarines of the OhioClass and 4 of the British Vanguard-Class.

(316. Vanguard-Class, GB 2001) This type of submarine is very expensive and the nuclear missiles included the cost cost between $ 3.4 and 4.1 milliard.

(314. Polaris cover, 23-01-1965) In addition to missiles to be fired from a ground base missiles had been developed to be launched from a submarine. This had the advantage that they were less vulnerable to attacks from the air compared with for instance a fixed silo and also that they could come closer to the target, meaning the missiles could be smaller.

Such missiles are called, SLBMs, Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles.

The missiles are fired under water but the first stage is only ignited after the missile is in the air. After ignition of the third stage the speed of the missile reaches 6000 m/sec.

The Trident was operational from 1979 and was phased out in the 90’s and the beginning of the new millennium. Only the type D-5 is designed to stay into service until 2020. Britain also possesses such missiles.

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Critics of the environmental movement oppose against the value of such kind of weapons within the framework of the present relations and an advisory board of the International Court of Justice has pronounced that the use (or the threat to use) generally is against common international laws.

The Treaties The first Treaty with respect to nuclear arms was the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in 1963 which banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, under water and in space. However, neither France nor China, both nuclear weapon States signed the PTBT. A major step was achieved with the signing of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968.

Under this treaty non-nuclear weapon states were prohibited form, inter alia, possessing, manufacturing or acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Unfortunately since then some states (such as possibly Israel, Iran and North-Korea) did not comply with this Treaty and entered the group of nuclear powers (317, Nixon, Brezhnev) In 1967 the USA only possessed 1054 ICBMs and 656 SLBMs, with some of these missiles capable of carrying multiple loads (MIRVs). The Soviets controlled large amounts of such missiles.

Because of the cost and also because of the principle of mutually assured destruction (MAD) on November 17th 1969 negotiations were started to limit the stock of such weapons. These negotiations are known as SALT1 and lasted until May 26th 1972 when the Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and the Americans President Richard Nixon signed the ‘Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty’ (ABM) by which a limit was set to the amount of ABM-systems each country was admitted to possess.

This treaty worked for thirty years. Finally, it was the United States under President George W. Bush who denounced the Treaty on June 13th 2002. The reason was that the Americans wished to develop a National Missile Defence against an attack of a rogue state. As the denunciation was not directed at them Russia and China reacted in a remarkably mild fashion. In any case, the denunciation was soon followed by a new treaty, the ‘ Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty’ (SORT) of May 24th 2002 by which further reductions of nuclear warheads were agreed.

(318. Jimmy Carter, Leonid Brezhnev) After Salt-1 a second round of discussions was started as SALT 2 lasting from 1972 until June 18th 1979 after the defence systems itself now also concerning the production of the missiles. Leonid Brezhnev again, but

now with President Jimmy Carter signed the Treaty.

From this meeting a famous photo is known from the kiss of Carter and Brezhnev. Six months after the signing the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the treaty was never ratified.

Finally all negotiations led to START 1 in 1991 and START -2 in 1993, by which the amount of nuclear missiles was reduced to defined amounts. Also START 2 never has bene ratified.

(319. Ronald Reagan, USA 2005, 320. Michael Gorbatchov) A very important treaty was signed on December 8 t h 1987 by Presidents Reagan and Gorbatchov, the INF-Treaty (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) by which they agreed to destroy all conventional and nuclear missiles and cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5500 km.

On June 1st 1991, the expiring date of the treaty, 2692 of such weapons had been eliminated, 846 from USA and 1846 from Russia. Moreover, it was agreed that both countries could inspect each others installations.

Most agreements were bilateral between America and the Soviets. Since the end of 60’s little progress was made in nuclear disarmament with respect to other States. This became changed in 1991 when the parties of the PTBT held a conference to discuss a proposal to convert the treaty into an instrument banning all nuclear-weapon tests. Negotiations about such a treaty started in 1993. One large problem was that nonnuclear possessing countries were greatly concerned about vertical proliferation (more and more bombs, new bomb technology), while the nuclear States favoured the horizontal proliferation (nuclear bombs being produced by states other than themselves).

On September 24th 1996 the ‘Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty’ (CTBT) was opened for signing and immediately so by 71 States including five of the eight then nuclear-capable states. In the meantime there are 177 States, of which 138 have actually ratified the Treaty. India, Pakistan and North-Korea did not sign the Treaty and 15 other States have also yet to sign.

The United States, the Peoples Republic of China, Indonesia, Columbia, Egypt, Iran and Israel have not ratified the Treaty at the time of writing. By signing 4

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each State undertakes not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, and to prohibit and prevent any such nuclear explosion at any place under its jurisdiction or control.

Furthermore, each State undertakes to refrain from causing, encouraging, or in any way participating in the carrying out of any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.

A Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO was created at Vienna to build the verification regime, including establishment and provisional operation of the network of monitoring stations and the development of the On Site Inspection capability.

PEACE MOVEMENT Coming to this point it seems useful to discuss the antinuclear lobby and the peace movements in several countries as not everybody was particularaly happy with the developments of nuclear armament.

Although peace movements existed long before that time, directly after WW II a strong movement rose against the use of nuclear technology in general and weapon systems in particular. It is thought to have started with the Russell-Einstein Manifesto on July 9th 1955 which highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful solutions to international conflict. The manifesto was signed by Einstein just some days before his death. The manifesto was signed by eleven notable intellectuals and scientists among them: Max Born, Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Linus Pauling. This became the direct occasion for the foundation of the Pugwash Conference.

(321. Jósef Rotblat, Liberia, 322.

Bertrand Russell, India) In the beginning this movement had a strong intellectual focus. The English radiologist Jósef Rotblat (1908-2005) and the philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) were the founders of the so-called ‘Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs’ in which they tried to bring together scientists and public figures to fight together against the fear of an armed conflict and to search for solutions for safety questions.

Rotblat had worked on the development of the atomic bomb but was one of the few scientists to leave the programme because of moral objections.

These, still existing, conferences did much towards the solution of many conflicts throughout the world. They also carried out much preliminary work for the PTBT, NPT, ABM and other Treaties.

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The first conference on July 9 1995 at Pugwash, Nova Scotia was attended amongst others by Leó Szilárd. Also Frédérick Joliot-Curie attended one of those conferences.

The organization and the organizers were offered the Nobel prize for Peace in 1995.

A special American problem was the fact that at that time they detested communism and the Cold War that much, that a unwelcome peace movement was soon associated with it and therefore lost much of their power with the general public. Nevertheless some strong peace movements remain active in the USA. Going back to an idea originating from the war of 1812-1815 between the United States and Britain and its Canadian colonies, supporters of the peace movements were called ‘Doves’ and their opponents ‘Hawks’.

(323. Peace Symbol, USA 1999) The famous peace symbol comes from Britain and was designed in 1958 by the ‘ Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’ (CND) by a professional designer Gerald Holtom. First the symbol was meant for a demonstration against the storage of The symbol is a junction of nuclear arms i n the semaphore signs ‘N’ (both side-lines) and the ‘D’ (vertical Aldermaston, England, but line) standing for ‘Nuclear quickly crossed the ocean to Disarmament’. the United States as a symbol for the peace movement as a whole. Many people have connected the symbol – sometimes in plain mockery – suggesting another origin such as an old-Christian one, satanic association (Nero’s cross), a rune sign upside down (Elhaz), by which the meaning changes from ‘life’ to ‘death’ or a communist sign, but also with a ‘crow’s foot’ as a symbol for the American ‘chicken = coward’.

The British political movement, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has been at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK and claims to be Europe’s largest single issue peace campaign. As well as campaigning against military actions that may result in the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, it is also in favour of nuclear disarmament by all countries and tighter international regulation through treaties such as the NPT. It is also opposed to any new nuclear power stations being built in the UK. The famous and long- standing annual march is held every Easter weekend from Trafalgar Square in London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) near Aldermaston, taking four days to complete.

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The start of the movement was triggered by an article written by J.B.Priestley on November 2nd 1957 in the New Statesman entitled ‘Russia, the Atom and the West’ in which he heavily criticized the former Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Aneurin Bevan for abandoning his policy of unilateral disarmament.

Prominent founding members were: the journalist Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), Canon of St.Paul’s Cathedral John Collins (1905-1982), the historian Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-1993), the writer J.B.Priestley (1894-1984), the politician Michael Foot (1913), the publisher and humanitarian Victor Gollancz (1893-1967), the philosopher Bertrand Russell, the historian Alan John Percivale Taylor (1906-1990), the MP and Minister Anthony Greenwood (1911-1982), the solicitor and journalist Lord Roger Simon (1913-2002), one of the founders of Amnesty International Eric Baker (19201976) and the feminist and second wife of Bertrand Russell Dora Black-Russell (1894-1986). Its founding organizer was Margaret Doreen ‘Peggy’ Eames-Duff (1910-1981), who also organized the first march on Aldermaston.

Additionally the Society of Friends (aka Quakers) was very supportive, as well a wide range of academics, journalists, actors, writers and musicians. Labour Party members and trade unionists also were very sympathetic as well other sympathizers. As already said, its logo became world wide the symbol for nuclear disarmament.

In the 80’s CND underwent a major revival triggered by the deployment of the Pershing II missiles in Western Europe and the SS20 in the Soviet Union and the replacement of the Polaris armed submarines by the Trident.

CND established a number of specialist sections. It is still active in many areas against nuclear weapons, NATO and plutonium trade.

The British fight against nuclear arms and cruise missiles is characterized also by their peace camps near bases such as Greenham Common, 45 miles west of London, known for its female peace camp founded by the Welsh group ‘Women for Life on Earth’ and the march of August 1981. Their protest lasted 19 years. Also the RAF base Molesworth in Cambridgeshire had a well-known camp of the Members of the ‘ Fellowship of Reconciliation’ which started at December 28th 1981.

This action was strongly supported by the Quakers and included men and women. The camp became a link in a Europe-wide network of centres for non-violent direct action in opposition to NATO’s plans to deploy Pershings and GLCM missiles.

They formed the focus of blockades and symbolic nonviolent actions. Many thousands were arrested for carrying out civil insubordination by entering base camps, cutting through fences and other acts of vandalism and opposing the police.

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The peace camp at Faslane in Scotland, home base of the British Trident submarines, has existed since 1982 as has the camp near the USA espionage base at Menwith Hill near Harrogate in Yorkshire.

Another important action against nuclear arms is the formation of nuclear-free cities of which Manchester was the first in November 1980. Today at least 150 nuclear-free cities exist all over the UK. Not only did the United States possess a great many missiles and rocket systems but also the Soviet Union developed many different types of missiles equally as good as the American ones and sometimes even better. The most important ones, and certainly those which were connected to space travel, we will give most attention to.

Besides these large possessors of missiles, in the meantime about 20 other States have developed their own specific type of missile, often evolved from an existing one, sometimes as their own development.

These missiles will be dealt with briefly.

THE SOVIET MISSILES The Engineers As with the Americans, where a fierce animosity existed between the Army. Air Force and the Navy, the Soviet Union had the same with their different engineers and engineering bureaux. There was a considerable friction between these bureaux which was fed by the Soviet leaders. In the end this would lead to such delays that especially the Soviet Moon programme was postponed to such an extend that it could not be realised.

(324. Sergei Korolev, USSR 1982, WB 442) Without any doubt the most important of these engineers was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (Королев Сергеи,1907-1966) who since the 30’s had developed rockets and as a member of the rocket group GIRD (Gruppa Isutcheniya Reaktivnov Dviskoniya , group for investigation of reactive movement) launched the first rocket based upon liquid propellants (alcohol, liquid oxygen (LOx) on November 25th 1933.

In 1937 he was arrested under the Stalin regime and was placed in a Siberian camp with airplane designers.

In 1946 he was re-instituted as Chief-engineer for the development of ballistic long-distance missiles in charge of a bureau called ‘Department 3’ of the special design bureau ‘NIII-88’ renamed as ‘OKB-1’ in 1950.

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In this bureau he was, especially theoretically, supported

by Mikhael Tikhonravov (Тихонравов Млхаил,19011974) and later by Mikhael Yangel (Янгель Млхаил,1911-1971). As Khrushchev did not like one strategically vulnerable bureau in the neighbourhood of Moscow, Kaliningrad he dispersed the development of Korolev’s bureau over two others. Yangel went with his new bureau OKB-586 to Dnjepropetrovsk in the Ukraine and Viktor Makeyev (Макеев Виктор,19241985) was put in charge of SKB-385 in the Ural, where he developed the SLBMs. Yangel’s bureau in particular developed soon into an important competitor of Korolev. and later was better known as ‘ Yuzhnoye Design Bureau’. From April 1st 1953 onwards the Korolev bureau was forced to concentrate only on the development of ICBMs..

the sudden death of Korolev in 1996 he was succeeded by Vasiliy Mishkin but, after he did not manage to make the moon rocket operational, he was replaced by Glushko, who thus became the sole leader of the Soviet Moon programme. After that Glushko developed the most powerful rocket engine of the world, the RD-170, based on liquid propellants.

Among others this rocket was used as a first stage for the Zenit.

(325. Chelomei, Ukraine 2003) Next to these three bureau’s another one, OKB-52, was active directed by Vladimir Chelomei (Че ломе й Вла димир,1914 -1984).

Chelomei’s bureau also competed with Korolev’s and Chelomei had the particular advantage that he made friends with the son of Khrushchev. But after he was deposed his influence naturally decreased Yet Chelomei’s bureau was responsible for the development of the UR-rockets, later basis for the development of the present Proton-rockets.

Furthermore a department was manned with captured Germans after WW II lead by Helmut Gröttrup (19161981).

After all it appeared that the Soviet used codes with ‘R’, starting from R-1 until finally R-56 but the Americans used the coding ‘SS’. Unfortunately after some time the Soviets used other coding systems and their engineers introduced own coding systems such as ‘G’ for Gröttrup, ‘GR’ for missiles in an orbit around the Earth, ‘RT’ for rockets on solid propellant, ‘N’ (Nositel = carrier rocket) for the moon rocket of Korolev and ‘UR’ (Universal Rocket) for the rockets developed by Chelomei.

Just as the Americans with their actions ‘ Overcast’ and ‘Paperclip’ transferred 106 German scientists, including Wernher von Braun, to America, in the same way the Soviets had captured 234 Germans and a great many spare parts of the V-2. After 1955 their knowledge was of no use anymore and they were allowed to return to Germany. Gröttrup became again a useful scientist and together with Jürgen Dethloff he developed in 1958 the chip card, but acquiring the patent only in 1982 !

(326. Glushko, Ukraine 2003).

But even this does not tell the whole story. The Bureau OKB-456 with Vale n ti n G lus hk o (Глушко Валентин, 1908 -1989) in charge occupied themselves with the development of chemical and electrical rocket engines.

In the beginning Glushko and Korolev worked closely together, but in the 60’s they had a serious difference of opinion on the kind of fuel to be used in Korolev’s proposed moon rocket N-1. Korolev opted for a rocket based upon liquid propellants, but Glushko was in favour of solid fuel in the eyes of Korolev too dangerous. After 7

Codes As could be expected in the times of the Cold War only a little leaked through the holes in the Iron Curtain. Accordingly the West used other codes for the different Soviet missiles than the Soviets themselves, which makes reference a bit confusing.

(327. Nadiradze) For the first rockets Korolev used only even numbers, excepting R13, as, according to Russian tradition even numbers bringing good luck. Furthermore Yangel’s bureau used numbers terminating on ‘6’ (R-26, 36 etc) and another engineer Alexandr Nadiradze (Надирадзе Александр,19141987) started his own series of solid fuel rockets with ‘Temp’.

The confusion ended (perhaps ?) in 1966, after which every rocket replacing a predecessor was numbered according to the previous one but with an addition, which finally made it that some completely different rockets yet showed more or less the same numbers.

To complicate the discussion even further a second coding system existed based upon a production number. By this system accessories manufactured at different locations could be more easily connected to the same system. This code consists of one number showing the aim of the project (Army, Navy, Air Defence), one character, showing the system (small rockets, solid propellant, nuclear warhead) and a twonumber serial number.

Finally the Americans also gave names to the Soviet missiles. An example: 8K71 is the R-7 rocket (American code Sapwood SS-6) used by the Army and

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constructed before 1966.

R-1/ 8K11/ SS-1A Scunner (328. SS-1, Scunner) The first Soviet missile was the R-1 or 8K11, which the A m e r i c a n s c a l le d SS - 1 A Scunner. It was a SRBM and originated from 1947. As a matter of fact it is a true copy of the German V-2. After some hesitation the decision for its construction was made by Stalin on July 26th 1947 and from September until October several tests were made at the base at Kapustin Yar, but none of them was very successful. About half of the launchings succeeded by which 300 km was covered and an maximum altitude of 86 km was reached.

The director of the project was Alexandr Shcherbakov (Щербахов). Glushko had to deliver the engine (RD-100) On November 25th 1950 the missile was declared operational, but its production stagnated in such a way that the chief of everybody, the notorious KGB-chief Lavrenti Beria (1899-1953), decided to transfer the production from the bureau SKB-385 in Zlatoust (Factory 66) to Factory 586 in Dnjepropetrovsk. He also ordered that this factory made it successful in two months which was absolutely impossible. It required eight. In January 1952 the manufacturing of the engine started and the missile was completed on November 28th 1952.

It was a huge colossus. In the field about 20 trucks were necessary for the transport and it needed four kinds of propellants (alcohol, LOx, hydrogen peroxide and permanganate catalyst). Six hours were needed to make the missile ready for firing. An amusing and very Russian problem manifested itself as the soldiers loved that alcohol with its great a potency that in a subsequent project the alcohol had to be replaced by methylalcohol (spirits) In the end 184 rockets were produced and launched, the last one on September 13th 1964.

R-2/ 8Zh38/ SS-2 Sibling (329. SS-2 Sibling) The R2 became operational on November 27th 1951 and was based on non-drinkable methylalcohol. For the missile a horrible nuclear warhead was developed which emitted a radio active cloud above the target and contaminated the whole area.

The set up procedure still lasted six hours and once in place it only could serve for 24 hours.

On December 6th 1957 a treaty was signed with the Peoples Republic of China by which this type of missile became the basis for the following Chinese missile programme. There exists some indications that this rocket was also used to launch some dogs into space.

R-5/ 8K62/ SS-3 Shyster (330. SS-3 Shyster) Together with the development of the R1 and R2 Korolev worked at the development of the R3 meant for longer distances (8000 km) and with a more powerful (5 MT) nuclear warhead. The project, however, was abandoned in October 1951 through problems with the mixing chamber of the RD-110 engines developed by Glushko.

The whole project was replaced by the R5 from the Yangel bureau. The R5 missile first was launched successfully at April 2nd 1953 and for the last time at October 20th 1983.

During that period 134 were fired. In comparison to its predecessors the nose cone could hold a suborbital capsule by which dogs were launched into space. But a number of those shots failed. After the American monkeys probably the dogs ‘Dezik’ and ‘Tsygan’ were the first which made a successful space flight with a R3 rocket on July 22nd 1955.

R-7/ 8K71/ SS-6 Sapwood (Semyorka) (331. R-7, USSR 1969, WB 241, 332. R-7, USSR 2004) An important step was made with the development of the R7 by Korolev. It would become not only one of the most important rockets of the Soviet Union but also gave the Soviet Union a leaf in the space race with the United States. It was the first ICBM in the world with a range of 5000-10.000 km and a heavy nuclear warhead of 5-10 T). Next to Korolev’s bureau NIII-88 in Moscow at least 14 other bureaux were cooperating in the project amongst other OKB-456 of Glushko. The rocket was propelled by liquid propellants (LOx, kerosene).

But Glushko was not able to deliver the right engines in time, thus Korolev had to rely on Mikhail Melnikov (Мелников) of OKB-1.

These engines became the prototype for the subsequent boosters used at the launchings of the Molnya, the moon rocket N-1 and the Proton rocket.

Its first stage consisted of a central unit with around it four booster rockets. Test flights of the first prototype started on August 21st 1957 and were finished on January 30th 1958.

Within these series the launching of two earth satellites was planned, the Sputnik 1 on October 4th 1957 and the Sputnik 2 on November 3rd. For the launchings the rocket was slightly adjusted (8K71PS).

The whole series of 8K71 included 31 launchings of which 20 succeeded.

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In the course of 1968 the R7 was replaced by newer more manageable ICBM types.

As a rocket for space launchings the R7 stayed unsurpassable and was used until this century, although in very adjusted form, for launchings of Luna (8K72), Vostok (8K72K), Voschod, Kosmos, Meteor and Soyuz satellites, by which a quick set up was of less importance.

Putting such a huge rocket in working order took about 20 hours and due to the corrosion by the propellants it was not usable for more than one day. Moreover these rockets were clearly visible from space making it quite vulnerable for an eventual attack. So as a real ICBM they actually were unsuitable. Furthermore, their cost was enormous and the rocket platforms included the whole project consumed about 5% of the whole Soviet budget for defence.

R-9/ 8K75/ SS-8 Sasin (333. Schema R-9 en R-26) Due to the use of the liquid propellants the function of the rocket as an ICBM was heavily discussed. The military preferred solid propellants as the rockets would be installed much more quickly and their operation time would be prolonged. In this opinion they were supported by Glushko, Yangel and Chelomei. But Korolev preferred the LOx-kerosene combination as this was much less toxic.

This was why only a small number of the R9 was manufactured.

This caused the estrangement between Glushko and Korolev as Korolev thought that Glushko had deliberately delayed the development of the R-111 engine in favour of the development of the R-16 rocket

by Yangel based on solid propellants. Hence, Korolev searched for another engine designer, the constructor of mainly airplane engines, Nikolai Kuznetsov (19111995), but finally he had to accept Glushko’s engines.

The R9 made his first test flight from Baikonur on April 9th 1961.

During the development of the R9 the new rockets based on solid propellants were introduced, the R-16 designed by Yangel and the UR-100 by Chelomei. On October 24th 1963 a R9 exploded in a silo killing seven workers. Referring to the incident with Marshall Nedelin exactly three years before (see below), the Soviets decided not to carry out launchings anymore of October 24th. n spite of all objections and set-backs the R9 became operational and a great many launching platforms were built. The R9 caused some confusion among western observers as during the yearly parade the R-26 was thought to be the R9.

Under the Salt-1 agreement the R9’s were given standby status starting from 1972 and they were destroyed between 1974 and 1977, which was not a very remarkable decision as the Soviets already favoured their rockets on solid propellants.

R-11/ 8K14/ SS-1B Scud R-12/ 8K63/ SS-4 Sandal R-14/ 8K65/ SS-5 Skean R-17/ 9K72/ SS-1C Scud C (334. Missiles Iraq 1967, WB 1) In fact the rocket designed by Yangel, the R16, was ready four years before the Korolev’s R9. Between the R9 and the R16 some other developments were made in between such as the R11, R12 and R14 all based on solid fuel. The last two are interesting as those rockets were involved in the Cuba Crisis of 1962: 24 launch platforms for the R12’s (SS-4), 36 missiles with a range of 2000 km and 16 R-14’s (SS-5), 24 missiles with a range of 4500 km.

The R11 was the first operational SLBM developed by the Makeyev bureau and was accepted by the Navy in 1959 but never deployed on a ship.

A further development of the R11, called R-17, became notorious all over the world as the Scud during the first Gulf War. Between January 18th and February 26th 1991 Iraq fired 40 scuds against Israel and 46 against SaudiArabia. The figures differ somewhat according to the source.

R-16/ 8K64/ SS-7 Saddler The ICBM R-16 was less successful At its development on October 24th 1960 a rocket exploded on the launching platform killing at least 100 workers This event became known as the Nedelin incident about which I reported in a previous article. Normally these missiles were stored in hangars. It took one to three hours to roll them out, fuel them and reach launch readiness. The missiles could remain fuelled for only a few days due to the corrosive nature of the nitric acid, fuel oxidant. After this, the fuel would have to be removed and the missile send back to the factory for rebuilding.

Although the missiles were initially deployed at soft sites not shielded from nuclear attack, still 69 of them were constructed.

R-29/ 4K75/ SS-N-8 Sawfly This ICBM dates from 1973 and marks the start of a whole series of successful SLBMs from the R&D group of Makeyev, SKB-385, such as the R-39 (SS-N-20 Sturgeon)

Part Three (of four) will be concluded in our January issue, with this feature continuing throughout 2009.

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 27

By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

The Pioneer Series This is the twenty-seventh in a series of articles about un-manned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the later/planetary part of the Pioneer-series of satellites. Pioneer-10 through Pioneer-13 were the planetary Pioneers. They were designed for exploration of the planets: two Pioneers went to Jupiter (and one went on to Saturn), and two other Pioneers went to Venus. This article covers these planetary Pioneers.

The earlier non-planetary Pioneers were discussed in the nineteenth article in this series.

Pioneer-10 and 11, launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively, were the first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter (both) and Saturn (Pioneer-11 only), and subsequently became the first man-made objects to leave the solar system.

They carried a wide variety of scientific instrumentation and lessons learned from them served in the design of the more sophisticated Voyager probes launched in 1977.

These Pioneers had 2.74-m diameter parabolic dish antennas and were powered by radioisotope thermonuclear generators (RTGs) held 3 m away from the spacecraft body on two thick booms angled 120° apart. A third 6.6 m boom held a magnetometer. These features are identifiable in many images of Pioneer-10 and 11 on various postal items.

have nothing directly to do with space missions, but issue space-themed stamps because they sell well to stamp collectors.

A noteworthy item in the checklist is a banknote (paper currency) issued by Malaysia in 1996. Not many satellites are shown on banknotes. In this case the satellite is identifiable as Pioneer-10/11, but with an interesting anomaly. The image on the banknote shows three identical booms, whereas, as described above, the Pioneer-10/11 contains only two such booms for the RTGs, and a third much-longer but slimmer boom that supports the magnetometer.

A checklist of postal items showing the planetary Pioneer series satellites (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ ramm/hillger/Pioneer2.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 garry_toth@hotmail.com.

These Pioneers continue to move away from our solar system. They have suffered from reduced power levels as they age, but Pioneer-10 was nevertheless successfully contacted in 2002 by NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) on its 30th anniversary. However, the signal from the spacecraft is now at the threshold limit for detection, even by the DSN. Both Pioneer-10 and 11 carry plaques depicting the location of the sun and the earth in our galaxy.

Pioneer-12 and 13, both launched in 1978, were directed to Venus. Pioneer-12 was an orbiter, inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus to provide the first global maps of the planet’s clouds, and radar maps of the planet’s surface. Pioneer-13 was a multiprobe, designed to send one large and three small atmospheric probes towards the Venusian surface. The spacecraft body was then sent through the atmosphere to the planet’s surface. It was able to send back radio signals from about 110 km altitude before burning up at lower levels.

A large number of stamps feature these planetary Pioneers, so many such items that the checklist that accompanies this article is probably incomplete. These and other planetary exploration missions are especially popular topics for stamps, even in many countries that

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for May/June 2007 10

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“Designed by Alec Bartos” : ASSS Member’s 2008 designs for Romania

Further 50th Anniversaries

Issued on 22nd February, Alec Bartos’ designs for Romania this year feature further important unmanned launches, from top left : American squirrel monkey “Old Reliable” (aka “Gordo”) survives a suborbital flight on 13.12.1958 but died when his capsule was lost on ditching into the sea.

Launch of Sputnik 3 on 15.5.1958 carrying telemetry instruments Launch of America’s first orbiting satellite Explorer 1 on 31.1.58

Explorer 1 Souvenir

By complete coincidence your Editor (who does not collected unmanned launches) received the card below from a penpal at roughly the same time as Alec’s signed maxim cards, carrying a piece of gantry metal from the launch platform at Complex 26.

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Helwan Observatory: A Visit in the Desert “In October this year- from the 20th till 27th- the First Arab Conference on Astronomy and Geophysics will be held here in the Institute. We expect hundreds of participants from all over the Arab World.”

by Bert van Eijck

to be in a photo with this author (below) with in the middle a miniature of his ‘sun-research machine’. There also is a small museum telling the story of NRIAG and the Helwan Observatory and of the famous Arab astronomers who have worked here.

Dr. Yasser A. Abdel-Hadi, assistantprofessor Solar and Space Research Department, and one of the orgasiners of the congress, is telling me this with pride in his voice. We are in Helwan, a small town in Egypt, about 30 kilometers south of Cairo.

To be precise, at Helwan Observatory, at the end of the village, in a remote place at the edge of the desert.

It was March 5, 2008. In my hotel near the pyramids in South-Cairo I arranged a day earlier by telephone a visit to Helwan Observatory, part of the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG). Prof. Dr. A.A. Tealeb, president, is happy to meet a visitor from Holland. So, a day later a taxi driver took my wife Jet and I there, after he had on paper in Arabic the destination with the request to wait there for the return of me and my wife. We received a hearty welcome, but –as promised – we have to provide a copy of our passports. We were permitted a short tour at the Institute and after a while we were greeted by Dr. Yasser A. Abdel-Hadi, a physicist, who studied years in Germany and spoke fluent German as well as English.

As a collector of astronomy and space stamps I really was interested in the Helwan Observatory.

It was this observatory which was marked with a very nice Egyptian stamp on December 30, 1978 to commemorate its 75th anniversary. At right on the stamp (see arrow) we see a small tower, the entrance of the old Institute. The scientist did not know about the stamp.

The observatory on the stamp now is out of order, but still exists. So a photo with this author has to be taken: (opposite). In the neighbourhood there is the Dome of the Solar Refractor and within the Coude Telescope, Dr. Yasser often is working with. He shows it and is willing

Astronomical observations started here in 1903 using a 30 inch reflecting telescope. Geomagnetic observations and recordings started in 1907, seismic recordings already made in 1899. Their equipment was up-dated as time passed.

Meteorological observations and studies were also introduced in 1920. These were performed regularly till the Second World War; in 1940 these were handed to the Meteorological Department. Across this long span of time, different names have been given to Helwan Observatory. For some time, since 1960, its name was Helwan Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (HIAG). Since 1980 the name is The National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG).

The first solar station in Egypt was erected and operated at Helwan in 1957. This station was used for visual, photographic and spectoscopic observations, especially during the International Quiet Sun Year (IQSY, 1964, 1965). In 1964 a Zeiss Coude refractor was installed. Artificial satellites observations and tracking started in 1957. Helwan was also involved in the Intercosmos project of the USSR, for precise ranging and p o s it i o ni n g of satellites.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory participated in 1977 and in 1982 as a third party for joint observations at Helwan, taking advantage of its suitability for satellite tracking and ranging.

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Speaking of satellites, Egypt has shown several on national stamps.

Famous is the Arabsat, issued May 17, 1977 and launched by the rocket Ariane V-12. On the stamp we see a satellite above the Arab countries.

NileSat is the name of Egypt’s first own satellite, launched April 1998, again by Ariane. On May 30th of the same year Egyptian Post issued a stamp for the event. The second NileSat came August 2000 in orbit.

The satellites contains now more than 120 digital television channels and more than 30 digital broadcasting channels. Responsible is the Egyptian satellite Co. Nile Sat, established in 1996. Egyptian Space Communications Company (ESC) is the leader in the design, installation and management of state-of-the-art satellite based communications links.

In 2005 Egypt issued a stamp for ICT Telecommunications, depicting a satellite and three satellite earthground stations.

ABOUT EGYPT Egypt is one of the oldest civilisations. The Islamic Arabs introduced their own religion in the 7th century as well as the Arabic language. In 1882 the British took over; during World War 1 it was a British Protectorate. and in 1922 Egypt became independent. There are about 80 million inhabitants of whom 20 million are living in and around the capital Cairo, the biggest city in Africa. More than 80 percent of the country is desert.

The Nile being 6695 kilometers long is the longest river in the world. It runs along the length of country and is the lifeline of the Egyptians.

Famous are the Pharaohs and their Pyramids; most famous was Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. She was born in 220 B.C. and lived for 42 years.

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MIR Space Mail Specimen from Andy Swanston’s Collection One of only 100 covers flown to MIR in December 1989 on board Soyuz TM8 (launched 6.9.89). Note the official MIR hand-stamp and the commemorative cancel. Item was personally signed by cosmonauts Viktorenko and Serebrov. Certificate of Authenticity provided as provenance

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Astrophilately—a ”Universally” Popular Theme Astrophilately was born soon after the launch of the first event earth orbiting satellite, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik on 4th October 1957, reached its peak during the Apollo mission years 1969—1972 when it was very near the top of the thematic interest lists and continues to engage and fascinate thousands of collectors all over the world.

Our British based Astro Space Stamp Society has over 120 members, about two thirds of whom reside in the United Kingdom and Orbit its quarterly magazine is sent to overseas members as far away as New Zealand, China and Saudi Arabia and to readers in exotic places like Nepal and Mongolia, as well as to over twenty in the USA and Canada.

The A.S.S.S. has an excellent website which complements Orbit : www.asss.utvinternet.com.

We have some very well known members in the world of international philately such as Margaret Morris, Ian Ridpath, Andrew Swanston, Jurgen Esders, Beatrice Bachmann, Charles Bromser, and Bert van Eijck. I write from time to time on our theme in generalist stamp magazines such as STAMP, my most recent article being on the 50th anniversary of Sputnik in the September 2007 issue.

In America the hobby is serviced by the A.T.A. Space Unit and their popular all colour bi-monthly magazine The Astrophile (now 50 years old) is taken by over 300 members. In Europe there are flourishing sister societies each with their own print or on line publications—in Holland (Nieuwsbrief), Germany (Weltraum Philatelie), France, and Italy (Ad Astra), whose society was launched earlier this year with just under twenty members.

So what do we do ? If you were to consider branching out from aerophilately you would have a very wide choice of aspects of our hobby to select from such as Manned Space Flight, Unmanned Space Flight and Astronomy, each of which can be subdivided offering many much smaller and more manageable topics.

I’ll start with my major interest which is the first of those in that list.

I was a child of the 1960’s and remember listening on the wireless to the Moonlandings—Apollo XI in July 1969 and all that—which so captured our imagination, but are now largely taken for granted or ignored as the date for manned return to the Moon is forever delayed.

I doubt if I shall see it in my lifetime.

So one could collect the American Apollo Program, but before that came Gemini (two pilot craft) or Mercury (single pilot). Before that you could look into the history of American planning for going to the Moon and the captured German scientists and their V2/A4 rockets.

Perhaps you have heard of Wernher von Braun ? Simultaneously the Soviets were taking away captured scientists and hardware from the Peenemünde rocket site for their own space programme, which then led to Sputnik and within a few years to Vostok, Voskhod, and the old warhorse Soyuz manned ferry, which first flew in 1971 and newer versions of which still make journeys to orbiting space stations. (You will know the name Yuri Gagarin but have you heard of Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko ?)

After Apollo, came the first signs of international cooperation with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1976, which could be a theme all on its own, such was the proliferation of stamps for it. The first American space station was called Skylab whilst the Soviets began with a series of Salyut stations, all shrouded in secrecy and some still very mysterious. Then followed MIR which the Americans latterly visited in their space shuttle on several occasions and today the International Space Station is serviced both by shuttles and Soyuz craft two or three times a year.

The third country to put a man in space by themselves was China with its Shen Zhou Craft and by the time you read this three such

A longer and fully illustrated version of this article by your Editor was written at the request of Dr Richard Saundry, Editor of the British Air Mail News and will presently also appear in the Aerophilately Journals of Canada and New Zealand launches will have occurred, in October ‘03, in October ‘05 and the latest during the Beijing Olympics.

In all some 480 astronauts, cosmonauts and taikonauts have flown in space, around ten of whom have done it six or seven times each.

Just over 10% of this number have been women. There have been four fatal flights in space, not counting accidents to spacefarers on the launch pad, namely Soyuz 1 (in April ‘67), Soyuz 11 (in June ’71 ) the Challenger (January ‘86) and Columbia (January ‘03) shuttle tragedies, killing a total of just under 20 fliers.

Today we are on the verge of new aspects of space flight with wealthy citizens spending $10 million to fly in Soyuz for a week or to go private via Virgin Galactica or half a dozen rival companies who are, as you read, working on plans to fly civilians on ballistic flights, providing them with four minutes of weightlessness on the edge of space (100 km up) for £100,000 or so.

Any one of the above programmes could provide a starting point for you to branch out into astrophilately but the number of options provided so far is dwarfed by the possibilities in collecting unmanned missions.

The Russians launched their Sputnik first and followed this quickly with other Sputniks carrying dogs, whilst shortly after the Americans began ballistic and then orbiting craft carrying monkeys and other biota. So Animals in space could be another theme.

Soon both countries began sending craft to planets in our solar system with Mars being by far the most attractive (and frustrating) to both countries. Today our Moon, every single planet, apart from Pluto (which ironically since 2007 is no longer classed as a planet) has had at least one probe sent to it and the Pluto/Charon binary system will be closely examined by an American craft when it arrives in a year or so. A collection for each of the planets, or indeed our Sun, would be a fascinating one to research and put together. Then of course man has sent probes well beyond the solar system— Pioneer and Voyager, still faintly active in the depths of space after 40 Years —and to several comets which have passed through our solar system, notably Halley’s comet in 1986 which was a major collecting theme. Many nations have now launched craft (either by themselves or with American, Soviet, Chinese or French help) including ones with considerable poverty on their territory e.g. Mexico, Pakistan and India. One could collect all the space issues of such a single country.

Astronomy is of course a vast theme with literally infinite possibilities to collect: star systems, constellations, famous observatories, earth bound and orbiting (like the Hubble Space Telescope), famous astronomers and cosmologists from cultures long and recently past.

UFO’s and Aliens could also be a sub theme for you.

As with any theme one can collect stamps, souvenir sheets, covers, maxim cards, special cancels and for the risk takers—autographs.

Some shuttle covers signed by all crew members now change hands for hundreds of dollars, but how can you tell if the signatures are authentic ? (Below shuttle launch cover signed by astronauts Hennen and Gregory).

If you would like to start an aspect of this theme we have members all over Britain who would be delighted to get you started you.

Please just ask !

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Shuttle Story : 1998—STS -89, -90, -91, -95, & -88 The continuing cooperative effort in space exploration between the United States and Russia and a joint spacewalk were to be the focus of NASA's first Shuttle mission of 1998 with the launch of Endeavour on Mission STS-89. Endeavour thus became the second orbiter to dock with Mir (all previous ones being by Atlantis). During the mission, more than 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg) of experiments, supplies and hardware were transferred between the two spacecraft.

This was the eighth of nine planned missions to Mir and the fifth one involving an exchange of U.S. astronauts. Astronaut David Wolf, who had been on Mir since late September 1997, was replaced by Astronaut Andrew Thomas, who spent approximately four months on the orbiting Russian facility before returning to Earth when Discovery docked to Mir in late May during STS-91.

SPACEHAB Payloads include the Advanced X-Ray Detector (ADV XDT), the Advanced Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (ADV CGBA), the EORF, Mechanics of Granular Materials (MGM) Experiment, IntraVehicular Radiation Environment Measurements by the Real-Time Radiation Monitor (RME-1312), Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), VOA and VRA. In-Cabin Payloads included the Microgravity Plant Nutrient Experiment MPNE, the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local Exhaust (SIMPLEX), the Closed Equilibrated Biological Aquatic System (CEBAS), the TeleMedicine Instrumentation Pack (TMIP), Global Positioning System Development Test Objective (GPS DTO), the Human Performance (HP) Experiment, MSD, EarthKAM, Orbiter Space Vision System (OSVS) Shuttle Condensate Collection (RME-1331), the Thermo-Electric Holding Module (TEHM), the Space Linear Acceleration Mass Measurement Device (DSO 914), the Co-Culture Experiments (CoCult) and the Biochemistry of 3-D Tissue Engineering (BIO3D).

Get Away Special Experiments include the University of Michigan G-093 Vortex Ring Transit Experiment (VORTEX), the German Aerospace Center

In the mission patch on this launch and landing cover the link between the two countries is symbolically represented by Endeavour and Mir orbiting over the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. The rising sun (with Mir in silhouette) depicts the success of the mission between USA and Russia. The figure “8” suggested by the inside perimeter indicates that this is the eighth shuttle-Mir docking mission and the nine stars represent the nine mission to be flown in the joint programme, and so the number “89” is also suggested. The nine stars also represent the children of the crew members—the future beneficiaries of the research being carried out.

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Flight

STS-89

Commander Pilot

Terrence Wilcutt Joe Edwards

PC MS MS MS MS

Bonnie Dunbar Michael Anderson James Reilly Salizhan Sharipov Andrew Thomas

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

23.1.1998 31.1.1998

SPACEHAB Double module

and University Giessen G-141 - Structure of Marangoni Convection in Floating Zones Payload, the German Aerospace Center and the Technical University of Clausthal G-145 Glass Fining Experiment and the Chinese Academy of Sciences G-432 canister containing 5 crystal growth and material sciences experiments.

In the mission patch design on the launch and landing cover below, the white inside line in the shape of the number eight and the nine stars of the insignia symbolize the flight's numerical designation in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence Source: Wikipedia

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The crew patch on the launch and landing cover above “reflects the dedication of the mission to neurosciences in celebration of the Decade of the Brain. The Earth is revealed through a neuron shaped window which symbolises new perspectives in the understanding of nervous system development, structure and function, both here on Earth and in the Microgravity environment of space.”

STS-90’s two week stay in orbit provided Columbia’s seven crew members with the opportunity to focus on the most complex and least understood part of the human body, the nervous system.

Neurolab was a Spacelab module mission focusing on the effects of microgravity on the nervous system. The goals of Neurolab were to study basic research questions and to increase the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for neurological and behavioural changes in space.

Specifically, experiments studied the adaptation of the vestibular system and space adaptation syndrome, the adaptation of the central nervous system and the pathways which control the ability to sense location in the absence of gravity, and the effect of microgravity on a developing nervous system.

The mission was a joint venture of six space agencies and seven U.S. research agencies. Investigator teams from nine countries conducted 31 studies in the microgravity environment of space. Other agencies participating in this mission include six institutes of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research, as well as the space agencies of Canada, France, Germany, and Japan, and the European Space Agency.

Primary goals were to conduct basic research in neurosciences and expand understanding of how the nervous system develops and functions in space.

Test subjects were crew members and rats, mice, crickets, snails and two kinds of fish. Cooperative effort of NASA, several domestic partners and the space agencies of Canada (CSA), France (CNES) and Germany (DARA), as well as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). Most experiments conducted in pressurized Spacelab long module located in Columbia’s payload bay. This was the 16th and last scheduled flight of the ESA-developed Spacelab module although Spacelab pallets will continue to be used on the International Space Station.

Flight

STS-90

Commander Pilot

Richard Searfoss Scott Altman

MS MS MS PS PS

Kathryn Hire Richard Linnehan Dafydd Williams Jay Buckey James Pawelczyk

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

17.4.1998 3.5.1998

Neurolab (Spacelab)

canister investigations. STS-90 was the first mission to make an Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) assist burn during the ascent.

Three sevenths of the STS-90 crew (Williams, Pawelczyk and Buckey) appeared on the Canadian television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. Working with engineers on the ground a week into the flight, the on-orbit crew used aluminum tape to bypass a suspect valve in the Regenerative Carbon Dioxide Removal System that had threatened to cut short the mission.

Research conducted as planned, with the exception of the Mammalian Mission Management Team considered, but Development Team, which had to reprioritize science activities because of decided against, extending the mission one day because the science community indicated an the unexpected high mortality rate of neonatal rats on board extended flight was not necessary and weather Other payloads included the Shuttle Vibration Forces experiment, the conditions were expected to deteriorate after Bioreactor Demonstration System-04, and three Get-Away Special (GAS) planned landing on Sunday, May 3.

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STS-91 marked the final Shuttle/Mir Docking Mission. This Phase 1 Program was a precursor to the International Space Station maintaining a continuous American presence in space and developing the procedures and hardware required for an international partnership in space STS-91 also carried the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Investigation (AMS) into space. The objectives of this investigation were to search for anti-matter and dark matter in space and to study astrophysics.

The mission was also the first to use the super lightweight external tank (SLWT) which was the same size, at 154 feet (47 m) long and 27 feet (8.2 m) in diameter, as the external tank used on previous launches, but 7,500 pounds (3,400 kg) lighter. The tank was made of an aluminum lithium alloy and the tank's structural design had also been improved making it 30 percent stronger and 5 percent less dense. The walls of the redesigned hydrogen tank were machined in an orthogonal waffle-like pattern, providing more strength and stability than the previous design.

These improvements would later provide additional payload capacity to the International Space Station.

Docking of Discovery to Mir, the first for that orbiter, occurred at 12:58 p.m., June 4, at an altitude of 208 miles. Hatches opened at 2:34 p.m. the same day. At hatch opening, Andy Thomas officially became a member of Discovery’s crew, completing 130 days of living and working on Mir. The transfer wrapped up a total of 907 days spent by seven U.S. astronauts aboard the Russian space station as long-duration crew members. During the next four days, the Mir 25 and STS-91 crews transferred more than 1,100 pounds (500 kg) of water, and almost 4,700 pounds (2,130 kg) of cargo experiments and supplies were exchanged between the two spacecraft. During this time, long-term U.S. experiments aboard the Mir were moved into Discovery’s middeck locker area and the SPACEHAB single module in the orbiter’s payload bay, including the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) and the tissue engineering coculture (COCULT) investigations, as well as two crystal growth experiments. The crews also conducted Risk Mitigation Experiments (RMEs) and Human Life Sciences (HLS) investigations. When the hatches closed for undocking at 9:07 a.m., June 8, and the spacecraft separated at 12:01 p.m. that day, the final Shuttle-Mir docking mission was concluded and Phase 1 of the International Space Station (ISS) program came to an end.

Flight

STS-91

Commander Pilot

Charles Precourt Dominic Gorie

MS MS MS MS MS (down)

Wendy Lawrence Franklin Chang-Diaz Janet Kavandi Valery Ryumin Andrew Thomas

KSC Launch Date EAFB Landing Purpose / Main Payload

2.6.1998 12.6.1998

MIR docking AMS

A prototype of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) flew for the first time on this mission. The AMS, designed to look for dark and missing matter in the universe, was powered up on Flight Day 1. Data originally planned to be sent to ground stations through Discovery’s KU-band communications system was recorded on board because of a problem with the KU-band system that prevented it from sending high-rate communications, including television signals, to the ground. The system was able to receive uplink transmissions. On June 3 the crew was able to set up a bypass system that allowed AMS data to be downlinked via S-band/FM communications when the orbiter came within range of a ground station. Data that could not be recorded by ground stations was recorded on board throughout the mission.

On May 28, 1998 a flag left San Marino and started a long trip firstly by helicopter on its way to Charlie Precourt and then the Space Shuttle Discovery, on which it flew on STS-91 The 10th anniversary of the “volo della bandiera” was celebrated in June as an important event for San Marino, since it meant the beginning of a growing interest of the young people in that unknown reality and started a friendly relationship between San Marino and NASA. The STS-91 Astronauts vistied San Marino bringing back the flown flag; San Marino started to participate in the European Space Foundation; a competition was started to sensitize young people about the possibilities offered by aerospace, etc.

In the mission patch on this launch and landing cover the rendezvous of the shuttle with Mir is depicted. The flags of USA and Russia are shown at the top and the outline of both countries is also identifiable on the globe below. Ryumin’s name appears in Cyrillic at 5 o’clock on the mission patch perimeter.

Thanks to Umberto Cavallaro for the information above right about the San Marino triptych opposite.

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The cover below is cancelled on the launch day of each of John Glenn’s two historic flights—over 36 years apart.

In the mission patch on this launch and landing cover the design reflects the scientific, engineering and historic elements of the mission. Discovery is showing rising over the sunlit earth limb representing the global benefits of the mission science and the solar science objectives of the Spartan satellite. The bold number “7” signifies the seven members of the crew and the link to the original seven Mercury astronauts with Glenn’s own Mercury capsule Friendship 7 seen orbiting .

John Glenn Returns to Flight Status The primary objectives included conducting a variety of science experiments in the pressurized Spacehab module, the deployment and retrieval of the Spartan free-flyer payload, and operations with the HST Orbiting Systems Test (HOST) and the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH) payloads carried in the payload bay.

For STS-95, a single-module Spacehab flew in the forward portion of Discovery's payload bay with the crew gaining access to the module through the airlock tunnel system. A variety of experiments sponsored by NASA, the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) focused on life sciences, microgravity sciences and advanced technology during the flight.

Flight

STS-95

Commander Pilot

Curtis Brown Steve Lindsey

MS MS MS PS PS

Scott Parazynski Steve Robinson Pedro Duque John Glenn Chiaki Mukai

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing

29.10.1998 7.11.1998

The Spartan 201 free-flyer was deployed and retrieved using the Shuttle's mechanical arm and was designed to investigate physical conditions and Spacehab processes of the hot outer layers of the Sun's atmosphere, or solar corona. Purpose / While deployed from the Shuttle, Spartan gathered measurements of the Main Payload HOST IEH solar corona and solar wind. Information collected during this mission led to a much better understanding of the solar winds that directly influence was routed to a laptop computer for post-flight orbiting satellites and weather conditions on Earth which in turn impact comparison. television and phone communications. This was a reflight of the Spartan payload flown on Mission STS-87 in November 1997 which developed The International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker problems shortly after being deployed from the Shuttle.

(IEH) payload involved a half dozen different experiments mounted on a support structure The Hubble Space Telescope Orbiting Systems Test (HOST) platform which was carried in Discovery's payload bay. carried experiments to validate components planned for installation during The six experiments that make up the IEH the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and to evaluate new payload were (1) Solar Extreme Ultraviolet technologies in an earth orbiting environment. There were four Hitchhiker (SEH) payload which obtained EUV experiments on the HOST platform. The NICMOS Cooling System allowed and FUV fluxes that are required when studying zero-g verification of a Reverse Turbo Brayton Cycle Cooler which permits the Earth's upper atmosphere; (2) Ultraviolet longer life operation than the then current dewar system. (2) The HST 486 Spectrograph Telescope for Astronomical Computer allowed the identification of any radiation susceptible parts in Research (UVSTAR) payload designed to the DF-224 replacement and demonstrated hardware and software measure EUV fluxes which can be used to form responses to Single Event Upsets (SEU's). (3) Solid State Recorder images of extended plasma sources (ex. Jupiter, compared on-orbit operation of the flight spare solid state recorder with hot stars, etc.); (3) STAR-LITE payload which the current HST unit. (4) Fiber Optic Line Test used the same 4 kbit/s data made observations of extended and diffused stream that was sent to the orbiter's Payload Data Interrogator (PDI) and astrophysical targets; (4) CONCAP-IV payload

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designed to grow thin films via physical vapour transport; (5) Petite Amateur Navy Satellite (PANSAT) payload which was managed by the Department of Defense Space Test Program and involves a small deployable satellite that stored and transmitted digital communications to PANSAT ground stations; and (6) a Getaway Special (GAS) payload.

Since the aging process and a space flight experience share a number of similar physiological responses, a series of experiments sponsored by NASA and the National Institute on Aging was conducted on John Glenn during the STS-95 mission. The investigations gathered information which may provide a model system to help scientists interested in understanding aging. Some of these similarities include bone and muscle loss, balance disorders and sleep disturbances. Data provided from Glenn during this mission was compared to data obtained from his Friendship 7 orbital mission in 1962.

In addition to becoming the oldest person to fly into space, Glenn also became the third seated politician to fly in space. At the time, Glenn was the senior Senator out of Ohio.

Senator Jake Garn (STS-51-D) and thenRepresentative (now Senator) Bill Nelson (STS -61-C) preceded him in that distinction.

Above and opposite just a few of the many covers, cancels and mini-sheets issued to capitalise on Glenn’s historic flight 22

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In the mission patch on this launch and landing cover the design commemorates the first assembly flight to carry US-built hardware to the ISS. The rising sun symbolizes the dawning of a new era of international cooperation in space. The earth below outlines (not very clearly !) the countries of the station partners—USA, Russia, ESA participating states, Japan and Canada. The Big Dipper constellation points the way to the North Star a guiding light for pioneers and explorers for generations.

This seven-day shuttle mission—the first to the International Space Station—was highlighted by the mating of the U.S.-built Node 1 station element to the Functional Cargo Block (FGB in Russian) already in orbit, and two spacewalks to connect power and data transmission cables between the Node and the FGB. The FGB, built by Boeing and the Russian Space Agency, had been launched on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan one month earlier.

Node 1, also called the Unity Module was the first Space Station hardware delivered by the Space Shuttle. It has two Pressurized Mating Adapters (PMA), one attached to either end. One PMA is permanently mated to the FGB and the other used for orbiter dockings and crew access to the station. Node 1 also contains an International Standard Payload Rack used to support on-orbit activities which was activated after the fifth Shuttle/Station assembly flight.

To begin the assembly sequence, the crew conducted a series of rendezvous manoeuvres similar to those conducted on other Shuttle missions to reach the orbiting FGB. On the way, Currie used the Shuttle's robot arm to place Node 1 atop the Orbiter Docking System. Cabana completed the rendezvous by flying Endeavour to within 35 feet (10 m) of the FGB, allowing Currie to capture the FGB with the robot arm and place it on the Node's Pressurized Mating Adapter Once the two elements were docked, Ross and Newman conducted two scheduled spacewalks to connect power and data cables between the Node, PMAs and the FGB. The day following the spacewalks, Endeavour undocked from the two components, completing the first Space Station assembly mission.

Other payloads on the STS-88 mission included the IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC), the Argentinean Scientific Applications Satellite-S (SACA), the MightySat 1 Hitchhiker payload, the Space Experiment Module (SEM-07) and Getaway Special G-093 sponsored by the University of Michigan. Endeavour's astronauts toured the new International Space Station on Dec. 11, entering the Unity and Zarya modules for the first time and establishing an S-band communications system that enables U.S. flight controllers to monitor the outpost's systems.

Reflecting the international cooperation involved in building the largest space complex in history, Commander Robert Cabana and Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev opened the hatch to the U.S.-built Unity connecting module and floated into the new station together.

The rest of the crew followed and began turning on lights and unstowing gear in the roomy hub to which other modules will be connected in the future. Each passageway within Unity was marked by a sign leading the

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Flight

STS-88

Commander Robert Cabana Pilot Frederick Sturckow MS MS MS MS

Nancy Currie Jerry Ross James Newman Sergei Krikalev

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

4.12.1998 15.12. 1998

Node 1 mating

way into tunnels to which new modules will be connected.

About an hour later, Robert Cabana and Sergei Krikalev opened the hatch to the Russian-built Zarya control module, which was to be the nerve centre for the station in its embryonic stage.

Joined by Pilot Frederick Sturckow and Mission Specialists Jerry Ross, James Newman and Nancy Currie, Cabana and Krikalev hailed the historic entrance into the International Space Station and said the hatch opening signified the start of a new era in space exploration.

Ross and Newman went right to work in Unity, completing the assembly of an early S-band communications system that allows flight controllers in Houston to send commands to Unity's systems and to keep tabs on the health of the station with a more extensive communications capability than exists through Russian ground stations. The astronauts also conducted a successful test of the videoconferencing capability of the early communications system, which was used by the first crew to permanently occupy the station in January 2000 (Expedition 1). downlinked

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Apollo 8 : Genesis of Manned Moon Exploration On Christmas Eve 40 years ago the crew of Apollo 8 made history by being the first ever humans to be cut off from their planet as they passed behind the Moon. A few hours later their names became legend when they transmitted back home readings from Genesis the first Book of the Old Testament referring to the creation of our World and the Universe.

The Americans were not to know until much later that the tragedy of Soyuz 1, (in April 1967) which killed lone cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the resulting failure to launch a manned Soyuz 2 had fatally damaged the Soviets’ chances of ever getting to the Moon because they simply could not master the two-craft-rendezvous techniques— essential for lunar flight,- quickly enough.

Curiously however, in spite of the perfect symbolism of a figure of “8” flight from Earth and around our Moon, Apollo 8 was not planned as the first manned Moon flight, but came about because of a series of project delays and failures.

The eventual crew of Apollo 9 commanded by Jim McDivitt which would go on to test the Lunar Module in Earth orbit (in March 1969) declined the offer of going to the Moon late in 1968 in their Command Module and so the next crew of Frank Borman, James Lovell (a late substitute for Michael Collins who went on fly as LM pilot on Apollo 11 in July 1969) and Bill Anders became the first-ever humans to leave Earth orbit.

According to Andrew Chaikin the author of the definite study of the moonlandings*, after the flight of Apollo 7 (in October 1968) which was to test the Command Module in Earth orbit, the following flight’s objective was to fly with the Command Module (CM) attached to the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit but there were The theory behind the techniques for multiple problems with the LM and George leaving Earth orbit for the Moon and Low one of the NASA engineering returning safely had been postulated directors suggested that since Apollo 8 by famous Russian space scientist would not have a LM in time why not fly it directly to the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) some 90 years Moon. Not just to do a figure of 8, suggesting once before and refined by the remarkable and mysterious around the back and home, but putting the craft into lunar orbit. This would provide experience of true outer space travel across the quarter of a million miles to our Moon, the related communications challenges and test the burns required for lunar orbit insertion and exit. But more than anything else it would provide an earlier than expected test of re-entry into our atmosphere slowing Ukraine 1997 from hypersonic speed.

Originally, when planned three years before, the mission figure of Ukrainian Yuri Kondratiuk to be tackled by the Apollo 8 crew was slated for Apollo (aka Alexander Shargei) (1887?3, but the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire, which had killed 1941?) in his Conquest of USSR 1964 astronauts Grissom, White and Chafee (in January 1967) Interplanetary Space published in meant that all plans had to be reconfigured and 1929. Tsiolkovsky had theorised many principles of President Kennedy’s target of reaching the Moon “this modern spaceflight including for example multi-stage decade” was in serious jeopardy. boosters and varying fuel mixtures, whilst Kondratiuk who was apparently largely unaware of Tsiolkovsky’s In fact there was an even keener incentive to get to the studies also postulated rocket staging, atmospheric Moon as soon as possible because of the then current braking to conserve rocket fuel and many of the fears that the Soviet Union would do it first with one of techniques eventually used throughout the Apollo its Zond craft, essentially a reconfigured two or three programme. cosmonaut rated Soyuz ferry. Two unmanned Zonds had already flown around the back of the Moon—one The Apollo 8 crew consisted of two veterans and a carrying terrapins and another a cosmonaut manikin. rookie. Air Force Commander Frank Borman (40) had been in charge of Gemini 7 four years earlier along with Navy pilot Jim Lovell (also 40) who had also *A Man on the Moon : The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (Michael Joseph 1994/Penguin 1995)

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Copious evidence that the flight of Apollo 8 was of great interest to Cinderella and “excessive issuing� territories, with some notable exceptions

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commanded Gemini 12 in 1966. The Gemini 7 mission had lasted 14 days in December 1965 and had included a rendezvous to within six inches of Gemini 6, a very impressive piece of work by the pilots concerned. Bill Anders at 35 the youngest of the crew was making his Haiti 1966 maiden (and only) flight as LM Showing the pilots of Gemini 6 and 7, Borman and Lovell pilot where there was no LM ! pictured top right

The Apollo 8 flight being unique gained immense media attention because its objectives were so ambitious compared with anything else ever tried. As it reached Earth orbit escape velocity of just over 24,000 mph on the morning of December 21st “the world held its breath”. Would the astronauts ever be able to return ?

Would they be irradiated in translunar space ? What if they missed their target and hurtled on into deep space ? How would they cope when they flew behind the Moon and what terrors lay there ? Would mascons beneath the lunar surface cause uncontrollable turbulence for an orbiting craft ? Would the crew be able to get back safely to Earth at not too shallow or too deep an angle either of which spelled disaster and death on re-entry ? And whilst most of this was febrile tabloid scaremongering officials at NASA must have had real concerns.

Just short of 40,000 miles from Earth, Apollo 8 reached the top of the hill (as it were), lunar gravity took control and began to pull the craft towards the Moon, and 69 hours into the mission Apollo 8 swung around the back of the Moon permitting three humans to see what had only been seen before in photographs, the mysterious far side.

Twenty elliptical orbits, each lasting just over an hour, were accomplished, taking the craft to within 70 miles of the lunar surface during which the crew photographed its surface peppered with craters from a few feet to hundreds of miles across, all undisturbed since creation, until then.

occasion with Christian sentiment. Bill Anders began, “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth….” followed by Jim Lovell, “And God called the light Day….” then Frank Borman concluded with the words “And God saw that it was good”.

Three days later as Apollo 8 reached the Earth’s atmosphere again it performed a double skip re-entry, like a flat pebble skimmed across a pond, before successfully returning, landing the Pacific Ocean and being picked up by crew from the USS Yorktown.

Apollo 9 three months later successfully tested the CM + LM configuration in Earth orbit, Apollo 10 did the same but in lunar orbit in May 1969 and two months later Apollo 11 put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the Moon.

Two of the Apollo 8 crew, Frank Borman and Bill Anders never flew into space again. Although offered other command missions (including a moon landing) Borman had already decided to move on and left NASA the following year, moving initially into the Airline business.

Bill Anders, perhaps negatively influenced by having so little to do in a role he had trained for—being LM pilot without a LM—may have become very disillusioned but remained with NASA for a some years being the back-up LM pilot for Apollo 11 before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Council, whilst remaining an astronaut.

Jim Lovell was to gain the most fame thereafter, however, as commander of the near catastrophic Apollo 13 mission in April 1970, filmed with Tom Hanks playing his role and allowing him a cameo role in the closing few minutes of the movie.

The accomplishments of Apollo 11 and five further successful Moon landings in the following two years were to eclipse the success of Apollo 8, but what the crew of Borman, Lovell and Anders achieved was in a very real sense the beginning of it all.

Bert van Eijck Writes

(27.5.08)

In Orbit 78 (page 15) there was mention of the “1960 The media highlight of this phase of the mission was the First Ever Flown Space Mail Cover and Letter” in the Bible reading on May auction of Regency Superior in the USA with an Christmas Day. As estimated price of $10,000 to $15,000. I have just hundreds of millions learned that this cover was sold for $35,000—in deed, of people across the a small fortune. It is not known who spent so much, world tucked into perhaps a museum ? celebratory meals three America ns By the way I still have a lot of covers for sale—nearly almost a quarter of a all those in my articles from 2000 onwards. Members million miles away can contact me at Noorderbinnensingel 11/9, NL-9712 their lives in potential XA Groningen, Netherlands or email jeopardy at any bertvaneijck@home.nl.

Yemen (Kingdom) 1969 moment marked the 28

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Apollo 8 : Anniversary commemoratives

An Apollo 8 Checklist Reprinted form Harvey Duncan’s series issued with Orbit #43 in January 2000. A tick indicates that stamps from that issue are shown in this feature‌..

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Intercosmos Retrospect : France November 1988 Brigadier-General Jean-Loup Chrétien became France’s first man to fly twice in space when he was launched aboard Soyuz TM7 to MIR on November 26th 1988, having previously flown on Soyuz T-6 in June 1982 Along with Soviet colleagues Alexander Volkov and Sergei Krikalev he was to work with residents Titov, Manarov and Poliakov and return four days before Christmas with Titov and Manarov.

France (SG 2870) is closely based on the TM7 mission patch and

Volkov conducted EVAs with Chrétien and Krikalev shows a French cosmonaut waving and in the background EVA activity outside a MIR complex in its simplest configuration, i.e. (twice) mainly to install new solar sensors. Three cargo without Salyut class additional modules which followed soon after spacecraft delivered scientific equipment and life-support Chrétien left. facilities and near to the end of their mission a reequipment (Salyut-class) module was launched with along with Chrétien they began top get ready to go bigger (1 metre diameter) hatches for future EVAs. home which they did fairly smoothly but with more problems (as on the Afghan flight, earlier in 1988) with As Volkov lay waiting for lift-off he read out a statement the TM6 descent module but not quite so dramatic. saying that the flight was proof of further cooperation between France and the USSR. As the craft took off a Chrétien as photographed for his third mission STS 86 special song composed for the cosmonauts was played (launched 27.9.1997 : see having first been used for TM4. Two days later Chrétien Orbit 78, page 24) was first to float into MIR to greet the resident crew. He brought with him several delicacies including Breton and In September 2000, while campagnard pâtés which ten French firms had worked visiting a Home Depot on specially for the mission. store in Webster, Texas he was hit by a 68-pound drill Medical and biological experiments were prominent press that fell from a shelf amongst the first day’s work on the complex. Chrétien more than ten feet above monitored his cardiac activity and combined with this him. The injuries to his was a series of medical test under the code name neck, head and shoulders Medilab. With six men in MIR space was at a premium were severe enough that and frustrations showed particularly with the a NASA flight surgeon complexities of the Physalie project which Chrétien said determined that Chrétien he would gladly have thrown out of the window had he couldn't fly anymore. He was forced to retire from the be able to open it ! space program in 2001. He filed a $15 million lawsuit against Home Depot several months after the accident.

In TV coverage of the flight the Soviets had shown The company settled the suit in 2002. advertising placards at the launch site but the French had rejected the idea of advertising inside MIR or on Chrétien’s overall lest he look like a racing driver !

During the first EVA on December 9th Chrétien placed a series of small experiments codenamed Enchatillions on the outside of MIR for exposure then turned his attention to the erection of the ERA structure which consisted of 24 identical prismatic cells made from carbon fibre. This stubbornly refused to open and did so only when about to be expensively abandoned and after some hefty (and disapproved of) kicking by Volkov. In making the EVA, the Frenchman became the first nonAmerican and non-Soviet cosmonaut to walk in space.

On December 15th Titov and Manarov exceeded the previous single flight duration record by 10% and so became the new record holders then five days later 30

Lollini card showing a younger Chrétien as he was in 1988

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Cover bearing USSR SG 5933, cancelled on the launch date of Soyuz TM 7 26.11.88 depicting Soviet and French cosmonauts space walking above the Glavkosmos symbol.

The cachet shows a similar scene beneath the words Project Aragatz, (Aragatz being a mountain in the USSR) the nations’ flags and a representation of the ERA prismatic structure which was so difficult to erect during the joint EVA.

Right, 1986 postal card celebrating 20 years of French-Soviet cooperation in space. In the imprinted stamp are the symbols for the Interkosmos Project and CNES, the French National Space Agency.

Below, cover bearing 1982 USSR minisheet MS 5247 issued (along with three stamps) to mark the first Soviet-French flight involving ChrĂŠtien (Soyuz T-6 launched on 26.4.82) again showing the Interkosmos and CNES symbols and a Salyut complex.

SG 2097 marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between France and the Soviet Union

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U.S. Based Member Celebrates 25th anniversary of Sally Ride’s First Flight Our Ohio based member Marcy Frumker was instrumental in mounting an exhibition at the Cleveland International Women’s Air & Space Museum (for which she is the space advisor) paying tribute to Sally Ride’s first mission STS-7 (launched June 18, 1983). This ran throughout the Summer months and Marcy will be writing a longer article on the event for Orbit.

Meantime some pics of the exhibit which was supported with images from ASSS colleagues.

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New Issues from ASSS members in Russia and Kazakhstan From Oleg Zaburdaev, Moscow, fdc of the March 08 stamp for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chief Designer Valentin Glushko

From Yuri Kovilin, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan two of the 2008 Cosmonautics Day issues (of 10.4.08), the 100 value showing MIR and the 150 the ISS.

Also from Yuri Kovilin below a 500 value celebrating Sputnik and a souvenir sheet from The Ukraine celebrating Sputnik, Korolev and Glushko

Bottom right France’s Sputnik celebration, issued 4.10.07

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ASTEROIDS Some Bits and Pieces New Astrophilatelic Association founded in Italy

Another blank space in the European landscape of organized astrophilately has been filled: 15 Italian astrophilatelists have established AS.IT.AF, the Italian Astrophilately Association.

Aimed as a reference point for space stamp and cover collectors in Italy, it was founded by a group of collectors with a solid experience in astrophilately and related aspects.

"It aims at disseminating information on collecting, exchanging materials and sharing knowledge on how to participate to national and international exhibitions", says former ASSS member Umberto Cavallaro, the President of AS.IT.AF. and one of the founding members.

Galileo Query

Orbit reader and contributor Ron Berger, who regards Galileo as one of his intellectual heroes is looking for a philatelic item (stamp, sheetlet, postal stationery) that shows the cover of Galileo's 1613 book on Sunspots where he describes himself as “Galileo Galilei Linceo” or, at least, that refers to it - there are several items showing Galileo and his telescope, and the book describes some of the discoveries he made by this instrument. He wants to do this to connect Galileo to his other theme which is “Big Cats” and “Linceo” refers to the Seventeenth Century Italian Academy of Lynxes, a study group of the natural world. If you can assist Ron with any information please contact him—Bergeron@012.net.il

AIJP Conference

Below a cancel on a card sent to Bert van Eijck from a meeting in June 08 of the worldwide society of philatelic journalists. The card was sent by fellow ASSS member Bart Beimers and Arie Olckers, President of our Dutch sister society, both of whom participated in the world philatelic exhibition in the astro class.

ASITAF will be affiliated with the Federation of the Italian Philatelic Societies. A quarterly newsletter is planned, covering information on astrophilatelic and space events, with a particular focus on Italy.

"We are currently 15 members and we expect to grow a little more in the next few months", Cavallaro adds. Paolo d’Angelo has been elected Vice President, and the Steering Committee consists of Luigi Bussolino, Giovannni Martina and Annibale Rega. ASSS member Pietro della Maddalena serves as auditor. The annual fee is 30 Euro, and a membership application is available in Italian and English.

Contact: AS.IT.AF, c/o Umberto Cavallaro – Via dei Platani 6/5 – 10090 Villarbasse (Torino) – Italy. email ucavallaro@alice.it Thanks to Jurgen Esders for this information.

Monkey Business

Andy Swanston writes to say he has for years been looking for a stamp issued for Enos the Space Chimp. He enjoyed our issue no 71 (Oct 06) with the list of Animals in Space by John Beenen from which he noticed that Congo issued an Enos stamp with Enos and Ham shown in the margins. He has checked his Gibbons catalogue but finds these not listed.

He is also aware of another unlisted Ham stamp from Niger in 1999.

Andy asks for the help of any ASSS member who can obtain these stamps mint for him and he is happy to pay all related costs. (429 Worsley Road, Winton Eccles, Manchester M30 8HG).

Bespoke Covers

American based cover designer Nirlay Kundu is willing to design 40th Anniversary Apollo XI covers exclusively for ASSS members next Summer—more details to come. Have a look at his current work across a variety of subjects at britain.nirlay.com and nirlay-fdc.blogspot.com. His email address is nirloy@gmail.com

Sale and Exchange ?

Two non-members have contacted the Society asking if members are interested in dealing with them. Leung (contact ywleung@shaw.ca) is looking for material related to the Beijing 08 Olympics including MNH stamps/sheets, FDCs and stamped postal covers. In return he can exchange the same sort of material from Hong Kong.

Michaela Seifertova has a large collection of space stamps and covers (many with cosmonaut signatures) from Soviet bloc countries which she would like to sell, having first contacted our Chairman Margaret Morris for advice. If you are interested, contact her for more details : Michaela.seifertova@gmail.com.

New N.Z. stamp shows Southern Cross Just received on cover by your editor.

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The Limits of Space Travel

By John Beenen

Part 2: Encounters of the first kind

Close encounters of the first and second kind by far represent the majority of the observations, because all observations of light phenomena and ‘flying saucers’ belong to these classes.

The first time that an object in the shape of a saucer was mentioned was on 25 January 1878 when a certain John Martin from Denison, Texas reported an such a phenomenon. But in general the observation of Kenneth Arnold on 24 June 1947 in the neighbourhood of Mount Rainier, Washington State, USA, is considered the first time that a such thing as a ‘flying saucer’ is mentioned. The observation of Arnold is issued on two stamp blocks: Tanzania 9900 TAN 14 B and Maldives 9324 MLD 3B. Both are shown below.

Looking at the illustrations, those in the Tanzanian block show more similarity with the reality than those of the Maldives. Arnold saw a kind of a boomerang with a tail instead of a saucer.

When he wanted to report the event he noticed that the bureau of the FDA was closed, hence, he went with his story to the local press, quickly followed by a posse of journalists.

In one of the following interviews he seems to have remarked that the object flew very freely like stones rebounding on water. That was translated by journalists into the idea ‘flying saucer’ and since then UFO observations are often dish-like, although also other shapes are reported such as: cigars, spheres and polygons. That in case of UFO’s they might relate to extraterrestrial entities was suggested only in an article in the New York Times on July 6th 1947 Very shortly after that (on 8 July 1947) at Roswell, New Mexico, an mysterious object crashed.

The behaviour of the U.S. Army authorities in particular brought much mystery to this event and it has continued to attract attention for over 50 years. Some sources reported that with at the crash site alien remains were 35

also recovered, but this is probably not the case.

Indeed, at a second crash at more or less the same time not more than 50 km away several bodies seemed to have been recovered. Because it was suspected that both crashes were related – a collision of two objects at Roswell the cockpit and at San Augustin the craft – these events became convoluted together. However, that at least one of them bodies were found seems to be a fact regarding the statements of witnesses, although other sources stand firm in their denial.

At this moment the official version is still, that at that time it was a secret project for improvement of the quality of certain balloons for espionage and that no bodies were involved. Today the whole Roswell incident is considered one in which nearly all elements necessary for creating a myth came together: a mysterious object, a secret project, a cover up affair, fear for espionage, disinformation, non traceable persons, badly communicating authorities, unreliable media eager for sensation and inability to investigate the real ins and outs in all objectivity and relativity— and all that in the light of the Cold War. In short, all parts for a tremendous hoax story.

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However, it remains strange that the most important witnesses are still stating that bodies were involved and that also several witnesses shortly after the crash suddenly were in much better financial circumstances.

Hence, it must not be excluded that it was a secret military project; Roswell was an important military air base. That it was a UFO with extraterrestrial entities is very unlikely, but in that case the real truth is even more astonishing.

Apart from the covers as shown the Roswell Incident also appears in the border of a stamp sheet from Tatarstan: 9900 TAN 8/13 C. Also the picture next is a part of a sheet from Tatarstan.

So the Roswell Incident has since led to a strong increase of observations of flying saucers. With regards to that, a remark which I picked out of a book on this subject states it very clear: “From every one thousand people at least one or two see strange things at night!”. We must not forget that the WW II was nearly over and the Cold War had started already. The phenomenon UFO was getting less serious when George Adamski, who has published photographs of UFO’s since 1952 and reported contact with Venusians, was unmasked by Richard Lawrence in 1975 when his flying saucer appeared to be the lid of a beer cooler !

Also well-known are also the Lights of Lubbock in Texas.

For some weeks a large number of lights were observed and verified on radar as w e l l b e i n g photographed. The first observation came on 25 August 1951 from Kirkland close to Alburquerque in New Mexico where a large object flying very low was seen.

It had the shape of a flying wing transmitting 6 to 8 pairs of weak bluish lights. At nearly the same time such lights were also seen in Lubbock where four

observations were reported of an object in the shape of a half circle also showing 20 to 30 lights. In the following weeks the phenomena were repeated twelve times. On 26 August it happened in Washington, but the object disappeared when an airplane took off to investigate it. It was established than that he object flew at about 4 km height at a speed of 1450 km/h.

Five days later also 20 lights were seen flying in a Vshape. Studying radar images it was concluded that it could not have been meteorological depressions nor flights of birds. The cause remains undisclosed.

Very interesting also were the light phenomena occurring in Belgium during the period 1989-1991, not only because they occurred relatively close by and not that long ago, but also because they are very well documented and have been seen by a large number of people.

Thus, on 29 November 1989 near the border with Germany at Eynatten a triangular object was seen flying at very low speed and at a very low altitude provided with three intense lights and a winking red light in the middle. The object was so silent that it could not have been a helicopter Its size was estimated to be 30-35 m in diameter, 25 m high and with an edge of 2 m. Some constables were able to follow the object very far along its path. After that the object returned in the direction of Eupen. Over the Lac de Gileppe it started to transmit intermittently two reddish balls of fire on beams of light and finally disappeared in the direction of Spa. In the meantime a second object of the same kind arrived on the scene.

From this object clearly a dome with windows was visible.

A similar object also was seen between 17.10 and 19.15 hrs in the neighbourhood of Liege and more or less at the same time also at Mons (Bergen) west of Charleroi and near Waterloo. On this occasion, the phenomenon was seen by 125 persons. On March 12 1991 the phenomenon was seen anew and reported by 57 persons. Also in between several cases were mentioned but less frequent.

Finally over 3000 observations have been reported by about 5000 witnesses, who saw the phenomenon sometimes at a very short distance of less than 50 m and over a prolonged period (15-60 min). Although these undoubtedly can be considered as examples of UFO’s the investigators emphasize that this does not mean that we have to deal with aliens also. Of course we also have to consider it might be a joke which got out of hand. In this respect it also has to be said that in the case of UFO observations the Army often shrouds 36

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themselves in silence, even contradicting the observations and mostly is very reticent with information. Also in this case it may be related to military espionage developments, which one would keep as secret as possible and for which the Army even is happy, when it is considered as a UFO. Ultimately a descending airplane covered in lights still resembles such a ‘UFO’, but that does not explain the observations in day time. In short, a real UFO, in the sense of the abbreviation.

Have astronauts seen UFO’s?

And to make it even more mysterious, what should be said about the story that Neil Armstrong, standing on the Moon, saw spacecrafts ‘parked’ at the opposite side of a crater ?

NASA seems to have knowledge of this information, but has not spoken about it yet. James Lowell flying on the Apollo 8 mission is reported as saying: “Do you know that a Santa Claus (Santa Claus = flying saucer) is here?” I myself think that these are just “jokes by the boys”. But the recently deceased Gordon Cooper and Frank Borman were certainly supporters of the theory that UFO’s could be of extraterrestrial origin. Borman says that he and his crew saw inexplicable sphere-like objects moving parallel to their track. NASA explains this as ice crystals but the astronauts persistently deny that. He also think it is strange that instruments left behind on the Moon and not working properly then after some time start working again, and some instruments which had never worked, suddenly do!

ascertained that this observation may be explained by ice crystals moving in peculiar directions from the venting of gases from small steering rockets.

Finally, in so many of these cases we have to recognised that the media have played around with “facts”. As far as the original tapes of the moon landing with the real conversations concerned, no indication of a conversation about UFO’s exists. However, from this it cannot be concluded that some astronauts and cosmonauts do not discard the possibility of UFO’s, but that is a totally different story.

Flying saucers on stamps, blocks and sheets In 1999 Tanzania issues two nice sheets each of six stamps and two accessory blocks on which the most well-known observations are depicted: 9900 TAN 1, USA, 12 February 1968, Columbia 9900 TAN 2, Trinidad, 16 January 1958, ship Almiranto Saldanka on which Almiro Barauna, a specialist in underwater photographs, made two photos of an object with a diameter of 35-40 m flying with a speed of nearly 1000 km/h.. The phenomenon was observed by 37 persons.

9900 TAN 3, Belgium, 1990, Eupen/Wavre, see part about Belgian observations.

9900 TAN 4, Finnland, 7 January 1970, Imjarvi, see chapter to come later, 9900 TAN 5, New Zealand, 1951, Kaiapoi 9900 TAN 6, Australia, 31 August 1954, Lt.J.A.O’Farrell Y: 2651/2656, M: 3557/3562, Sc.1824 And in the border there are observations about what is called ‘Area 51’, a very secret testing area of the American Army in Groom Dry Lake in the desert of Nevada.

In this respect the remark of Armstrong that he saw large unknown spacecrafts at the Moon should be considered differently.

Some astronauts also state that the rather abrupt end of the Apollo missions has something to do with the fact that these ‘occupants’ of the moon base had had enough visits from the Earth .

Personally I regret this ‘addition’ as now the exaggeration and misinformation becomes very obvious. Ultimately the termination of the mission was just a matter of money.

Also in the Soviet Union some cosmonauts such as Vladimir Kovalenko, Pavel Popovich, Vitali Sevastivanov and the Polish cosmonaut Miroslav Hermaszevski have admitted the existence of UFO’s. Dr.Konstantin Feoktistov has not ruled out that someday we could make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence and that we should prepare ourselves for that.

The second sheet (printed bottom of page 35) shows: 9900 TAN 8 C, Mc Minnville, Oregon, 11 May 1950, photo of a metal-like object, dish-like, with a diameter of 6-9 m and a small cockpit taken by Paul Trent. The STS-48 (12/18-09-1991) may also have recorded a authenticity of the photo is nearly certain. meeting with a UFO on video, but in the meantime it is 9900 TAN 9 C, Albuquerque, 1963, Photo by Paul Villa 37

ORBIT

9900 TAN 10 C, Gulf Breeze, 11 November 1988, Ed Walters 9900 TAN 11 C, Madre de dios, Peru, 19 July 1952, Dr.Domingo Troncosa 9900 TAN 12 C, Merlin, Mexico, 1964, The clearest photo ever taken from a UFO, taken by Dr.Daniël Fry, a technician, who also claims to have had contact with Marians several times.. Consequently, probably a fantast.

9900 TAN 13 C, Mexico City, 11 July 1991 Y: 2700/2705, M: 3563/3568, Sc.1825 And in the border the Roswell incident from 1947

Buzz Aldrin’s Press release On 16th July 1969 thousands of people crowded highways and beaches near the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida as the Apollo 11 mission was about to begin.

Both blocks show respectively:.

9900 TAN 7 B: see in the next chapter the incident concerning Thomas.F.Mantell on 7 January 1948 and 9900 TAN 14 B: The story as above from Kenneth Arnold of 14 July 1947, (illustrated on p 35) where the idea of a ‘flying saucer’ was introduced…..

to be examined in my next chapter: ‘Close encounters of the Second Kind’.

One copy being Sold by Stanley Gibbons with the attached provenance. Referred to the ASSS by STAMP magazine for comment.

President Richard Nixon viewed the proceedings from the Oval Office of the White House whilst television audience hit unprecendented highs.

These were exciting times for the US and a global audience however, as you can imagine, they were nervous times for the crew-members and their families.

The families had understandably been taken care of financially in case of disaster, but in a very unique way.

Prior to the Apollo 11 launch crew-members, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, were presented with special Apollo 11 Postal Covers by the NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre Stamp Club.

The covers were produced for the crew to sign in pre-flight quarantine, shortly before the launch to the moon and the signed covers were left with their families as a form of insurance that could be sold, should they failed (sic) to return.

Some of the covers were postmarked on July 16, 1969, the day of launch while the remainder were postmarked in Houston on July 20, 1969, the day of the moon landing.

The signatures on the covers were therefore written by Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin mere days before the first historic landing on the moon.

One of these covers is available from Stanley Gibbons Ltd and has wonderful provenence - it is from the Buzz Aldrin Family Space Collection.

The covers are recognised to have played an integral role in history and were deemed as tangible assets even before Apollo 11 left Earth.

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ORBIT

Sputnik Celebrations Eclipsed by 50 Years of Space Exploration Issues report by Harvey Duncan Following on from the anniversary of Sputnik 1 we now also have issues commemorating 50 years of Space Exploration and Satellites – Spot the difference! These are mostly sheets as opposed to stamps and several feature Sputnik 1 as expected.

to be lunar probes. As both failed to gain orbit never mind reach the vicinity of the Moon they were deemed failures not achievements.

Looking on the bright side perhaps we should be grateful as those two spacecraft have never appeared th before on stamps and this gives us the opportunity to However Ascension commemorated NASA’s 50 Anniversary with six large sheets, one for each decade, rewrite our collection on Lunar Probes highlighting the one stamp per sheet in blocks of eight as follows – early problems associated with early spaceflight.

1950’s Bell X.1E plane, 1960’s Neil Armstrong on the moon, 1970’s Lunar rover of Apollo 16, 1980’s the Magellan spacecraft deployment, 1990’s Hubble Space Telescope and 2000—the International Space Station.

Other sheets feature blocks of various stamps highlighting achievements both manned and unmanned from Sputnik 1 to the present.

Small sheets containing one stamp appear to be the favourites on this occasion, portraying among others Voyager 1 and the Space Station.

The most surprising and puzzling however are the issues featuring Pioneer 1 and Pioneer 3 which were intended

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