Orbit issue 87 (October 2010)

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ORBIT

Editorial

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 87 October 2010

The report of its death has been exaggerated !

Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

COMMITTEE Chair :

Mark Twain would be proud of me ! My plans for this issue to mark the end of the space shuttle have (inevitably) been thwarted by delays in the NASA schedule and it now looks as if there will be at least two further launches: STS-133 in November of this year and STS-134 in February 2011. There are even plans for STS-135 with a four man crew to be launched in June, so taking the longevity of this programme beyond the 30 year mark, the first shuttled having been launched on 12 April 1981.

Margaret Morris, 55 Canniesburn Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow GS1 1RX (E-mail: MMorris671@aol.com)

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

Compiler of Checklist / Hon Treasurer / Postal Packet Organiser

So apologies for the cover which was planned and designed when it looked as if the shuttle’s swansong was very imminent. There’s no need to write to me !

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)

Perhaps America’s reluctance to say goodbye to these grand old craft follows on from its sense of great uncertainly of what lies beyond that and the prospect of the USA having no autonomous access to space for four to five years.

By the time NASA finally returns to space with a vehicle capable of servicing the ISS, whose life itself is now projected well into this decade, other nations and several private organisations will have made their mark on space and will have been commemorated by international space stamps ?

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, Linda Valley Villa #236

ASSS website at URL:

www.asss.utvinternet.com/

11075 Benton Street Loma Linda CA 92354-3182 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)

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Members in UK—£15 in Europe (EU and non-EU) - €30 Elsewhere - $45 equivalent Juniors (under 18) £6.50 ADVERTISING RATES We invite advertisers to use ORBIT to reach Astro -Philatelic enthusiasts worldwide. If readers have a commercial source they think they would like others to benefit from please let the firm know of us:. Rates are: Full page Display - £24 Half Page - £12 Quarter Page £6 One eighth of a page - £4.

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

Copy Deadline for the January 2011 issue is December14th by which time all material intended for publication should be with the Editor.

© Copyright 2010 The Astro Space Stamp Society.

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

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ORBIT

Claudie Haigneré was honoured with a Lollini sponsored issue of four stamps from Somalia one of which is shown below left.

Part Two

Part One covered the ISS from its inception in 1998 up to the completion of the second phase in Summer 2001

STS-108

(launched 5.12.2001) The final shuttle flight of the year was ISS assembly flight UF-1 which also carried the Multi Purpose Logisitcs Module Raffaello and a change of crew taking up the ISS-4 (EO-4) crew of Yuri Onufriyenko, Daniel Bursch and Carl Weiz which was a mirror image of the EO-3 crew having a Russian commander and

The third resident crew (EO-3) commanded by American Frank Culbertson with two Russian colleagues had arrived at the ISS via STS-105 in August 2001 for a fourth month stay, 129 days in fact researching in many science disciplines and conducting the first EVAs by a resident crew.

Soyuz TM 33

(launched 21.10.2001)

two American crew, each of whom was making his fourth flight. Endeavour remained docked to the ISS for almost 190 hours, during which in the only EVA, which lasted just over four hours, mission specialists Dan Tani and Linda Godwin installed insulation on the solar array rotation mechanism and retrieved antennae covers for return to Earth. The official handover between the ISS resident crews occurred on 13 December. Just after undocking the crew of the shuttle splayed the small Starshine 2 satellite from a Get Away Special canister which was to be tracked by thousands of students in 26 countries during its eight months in orbit.

The second Soyuz taxi mission (3S) carried a veteran Russian commander in Viktor Afanasyev, a rookie flight engineer in Konstantin Kozeev and “spationaute” Claudie Haigneré making her second flight—her first having been to Mir, five years before—following her marriage to a fellow French spacefarer. Haigneré’s week long CNES sponsored mission was dubbed “Andromède” and included two experiments devoted to the observation of earth and the study of the ionosphere, three life science studies and two physics experiments. French high schools also devised educational experiments, designed to support science teaching in schools. This crew left for Earth in the TM 31 craft on 31 October.

EO-4 Highlights

The fourth expedition, which began with the arrival of STS108 at the ISS, concluded on 19the June 2002 when the crew returned aboard STS111. During their 196 day stay the EO4 crew worked on over 50 science experiments, almost equally divided in origin between the USA and Russia and many of them already installed on the station.

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ORBIT

The crew performed three EVAs, the first two via the Russian Pirs module and the third out of the Quest airlock. These EVA involved relocation of the cargo boom for the Strela crane to the outside of Pirs, the installation of six deflector shields on the Service Module thrusters and of radio antennae. Then on the 40th anniversary of the first orbital flight by the American John Glenn, Walz and Bursch performed the first EVA out of Quest without an attached shuttle in support, in order to prepare the area for installation of the S0 Truss due to arrive with STS-110 in April.

Soyuz TM 34

(launched 25.04.2002)

During their spell on the ISS, the crew experienced power problems and a number of failures of the Elektron oxygen equipment. They also had difficulties with the operation of Canadarm2 whose wrist joint failed and required replacement. They were relieved with arrived of the EO-5 crew who came up with STS111.

Both Bursch and Walz broke the record established by Shannon Lucid for an extended spell in space, eventually spending 196 days on the ISS, 8 more than her endurance record. On landing the three crew had a joint accumulated total of nearly 850 days in space.

STS-110

(launched 8.4.2002)

This “taxi” mission exchanged Soyuz ferries, allowed Italian Robert Vittori to complete a Science programme (called Marco Polo) for the Italian Space Agency and carried the second fare-paying passenger to the ISS in the shape of Mark Shuttleworth, the first African to fly in space. Stamps were produced to mark these flights,

by South Africa on 17.122003 and a Lollini sponsored issue of four from Somalia issued on launch day.

Shuttleworth was determined to improve on the image of the “space tourist” created following Denis Tito’s first flight and he developed a programme of life science experiments using on board equipment and bringing up four South African university developed ones.

TM 34 was the last in the series of that version of

Atlantis docked with the ISS on 10th April and in the Soyuz (which had begun in May 1986) with a new type

following 170 hours at the station the four mission capable of more comfortably carrying astronauts of specialists conducted four EVAs in order to install the S0 varying sizes, about to come into service.

Truss, as well as the increasingly routine duties of transferring equipment and supplies to the ISS. STS-111 (launched 5.6.2002) The truss was to serve as a platform on to which other trusses were to be attached and solar arrays, navigation devices and power systems for later additions mounted.

Initial tests of the Mobile Transporter (railcar), which typically moved slowly (3 cms a second) were successfully completed. This facility would later prove to be very valuable in moving equipment about the ISS. On this mission Jerry Ross became the first astronaut to be launched from Earth seven times, though John Young had been launched six and once from the Moon.

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STS-111 was assembly mission UF2 and transported to the station the new resident crew of Valery Korzun, Peggy Whitson and Sergei Treschev.

Endeavour docked with the ISS on 7th June and

remained mated for almost a 190 hours. On the same day the EO-4 crew formally ended their 182-day residence handing over to the new team. During the time the two crews had together three EVAs were completed by Chang-Diaz (making his seventh flight) and spationaut Perrin, (the first Frenchman to spacewalk from the ISS) working on developing the truss arrangement which would grow with every subsequent visit of a shuttle.

One necessary repair was to Canadarm2 whose wrist roll joint was replaced, so restoring the sophisticated tool to operational status.

The MPLM Leonardo brought up in the shuttle payload bay also permitted a large amount of new kit, such as a new science rack for microgravity experiments and a new glove box for isolation condition tests—to be taken into the ISS and old materials to be returned to Earth.

Assembly flight 9A flown by Atlantis docked with the ISS on 9th October, carrying materials for the construction of the S1 Truss and CETA— the Crew Equipment Translation Aid (cart), which was to travel along the MBS rail.

During EVAs David Wolf and (British born) Piers Sellers connected power, data and fluid lines and released launch bolts that allowed the radiators to be orientated for optimum cooling and set CETA in place. Crew members also repaired the exercise treadmill vibration dampening system in Zvezda and replaced a humidity separator in Quest which had been leaking.

Soyuz TMA 1

(launched 30.10.2002)

EO-5 Highlights

As with EO-4 well over 50 experiments were tackled or rerun by the new resident crew including one concerning the forming of kidney stones during spaceflight for which Peggy Whitson was the principal investigator, as the first “Science Officer” designated by NASA. During their 185 days on the ISS the crew received two Progress re-supply craft (M1-8 and M1-9) bringing over 5000 kg of cargo and equipment for the ESA Odessa science programme in November.

By now routine EVA were conducted and the crew overcame equipment, repair and maintenance challenges.

Whitson posted a regular series of journals on the NASA website about the work she was doing so providing a fascinating insight into the daily work of the ISS crew.

She was amused to be compared to “Science Officer” Mr Spock of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek !

STS-112

(launched 7.10.2002)

Within two weeks of the department of Atlantis, the first of the new style Soyuz ferries arrived, manned by two Russians (Sergei Zaletin and Yuri Lonchakov and a Belgian, Frank DeWinne). This flight ought to have carried the third space flight participant (aka tourist) in the shape of N. Synch pop singer Lance Bass but the millionaire failed to pay his fare and was replaced by the back-up commander. “TMA” signified Transport, Modification, Anthropometric and allowed many American astronauts to fly who had been too large to fit in the Soyuz ferry’s previous versions : very fortuitous development given the dramatic space events which were to occur within a few months. This was the first Soyuz variant to fly without first being “road-tested” unmanned.

The visitors who stayed at the station for a week worked with the resident crew on Russian science programmes and helped DeWinne with his ESA Odessa experiment programme which had some twenty different features.

Returning in the TM 34 spacecraft they had quite a hard landing in the first Russian landing at night time in ten years. DeWinne appears (on the right) in a Belgian sheet issued in 2004 containing ten stamps showing famous countrymen.

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At this point in late 2002, the ISS complex looked much as does in this 2006 stamp from Sierra Leone, captioned “ISS, June 15th, 2002” showing the first basic trusses in place.

STS-113

missions scheduled until the arrival of STS-114 to bring them home after a four month tour.

The science programme included over twenty new investigations and Pettit broadcast a series of science demonstrated supported by postings on the internet.

Two EVA (one unplanned) were conducted, the first related to the P1 Truss radiator system, but the second (after the loss of Columbia) conducted on 8th April to ensure that the new crew would need to perform an EVA only in an emergency.

(launched 23.11.2002)

Progress M47 arrived on 4th February and further such visits would now prove indispensable to the maintenance of operations on the ISS in the following two to three years. The resident crew departed on 3rd May, so becoming the first to return to earth in a Soyuz craft and accordingly making Bowersox and Pettit the first NASA men to fly home in a Russian craft.

Assembly mission 11A began with the arrival of Endeavour at the ISS on 25th November and the following day the P1 Truss which had been carried up was relocated to the port end of the S0 Truss and automatically bolted in place.

The mission also brought up the EO-6 crew of Ken Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin and Donald Pettit, who officially took over shortly after the docking. Three EVAs were conducted in support of the truss installation and that of the CETA-B cart. The activities included the first EVA by a native American in rookie MS John Herrington.

The landing went far from well with the crew experiencing almost 8G in the re-entry process and landing well off target so that it took over two hours to find them : they had not been equipped with mobile phones. Pettit was much distressed by the landing but the crew were much praised for their professionalism in dealing with the problem which was later traced to the yaw gyroscope experiencing a gimbal lock when its angular rate exceeded 54°.

Soyuz TMA 2

(launched 26.4.2003)

EO-7

Although no one could possibly have predicted it at the time this would be the last time for thirty months that a shuttle would dock at the station. Endeavour’s own attempts to land were waived off on a record three consecutive days before finally making it home on 7th December.

EO-6 Highlights

The sixth resident crew had expected to return by shuttle at the end of their stay on the station but the loss of Columbia on 1st February 2003 (in a mission that had not visited the ISS) resulted in the fleet being grounded and the crew having to use the TMA-1 The new style Soyuz ferry was spacecraft for landing and they were replaced by the now the only means of taking astronauts to the ISS and due TMA-2 “caretaker” crew. to limited supply capacity it was decided that until shuttles Donald Pettit had been included could be used again the late the preparatory stage when resident crews would have to the original Science Officer Don be only two-strong (one from Thomas was adjudged to have each nation) and launched received too much radiation on every six months. The previously identified ISS crews his previous spaceflights for duty were reassigned as two-person crews with the third on a long duration flight. There seat allocated to ESA astronauts, flying short visits. were no planned visiting 6

ORBIT

However, ESA had delayed their next astronaut’s flight by six months and so TMA2 flew with only two men on board.

Duque returned to Earth with the EO7 crew on 27th October, having completed his Cervantes science programme during his eight days on the station.

The first “caretaker” crew simply maintained systems on the complex with limited capacity for science programmes, conducting only those which were already in situ. Although both Mir and Salyut space stations had been run by only two people, the ISS was much more complex and considerably bigger, so the ground managers were very cautious in allocating duties.

In November Foale and Kaleri practised emergency ingress procedures to determine if crew members wearing Orlan EVA suits could enter Soyuz using the internal hatches. This was proved possible after a great deal of stressful activity.

Progress M1-10 and M48 brought new supplies up to Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu. Lu as Science Officer continued to post on the web a series of personal recollections of events on board.

One EVA was conducted (on 26th February) and with both men outside that was the first occasion on which no one had been inside the ISS for three and a half years. On 8th December Foale became the most experienced NASA astronaut surpassing Carl Walz’s career total of 231 days over four missions. When he finally landed, Foale had logged 375 days in space, but his colleague Kaleri was still 238 days ahead of him in aggregate terms.

On 28 May a demonstration of American EMU suiting was completed so proving that two men could suit up and remove suits without assistance from a third should an emergency EVA be required. On 10th August Malenchenko was “married” via a TV link to his fiancée in Houston Texas, arrangements having been made long in advance.

Soyuz TMA 3

(launched 18.10.2003)

Soyuz TMA 4

EO-8

(launched 19.4.2004)

EO-9

The new resident crew comprising Gennady Padalka, Ed Fincke and Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers arrived in mid-April and they are shown on this Lollini sponsored issue from Somalia in 2004 with Kuipers appearing on his own in the top two stamps with Fincke and Padalka (left) and Kaleri and Foale in the bottom pairing.

The second caretaker crew arrived in mid-October carrying Spanish ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, British born ISS commander Michael Foale making his sixth flight and Russian Alexander Kaleri, the whole crew being curiously celebrated by an issue from Tchad in 2004.

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Kuipers completed his ESA DELTA package during his eight days on board ISS and returned with the EO8 crew on 30th April.

The EO9 crew received no visitors other than cargo payloads via Progress M1-11, M49 and M50. After working on suit repairs and servicing for over a month the crew abandoned their first EVA after only 14 minutes because of a pressure drop in the main oxygen supply of an Orlan suit, but a week later after successful repairs they spent almost six hours outside working on the S0 truss. In a second EVA in early August they installed reflectors and communication units ready for the first ESA Automatic Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne, though this was later delayed by many months.

On 18th June Fincke made history by becoming the first US astronaut to become a father in space, listening to the birth of his second daughter via his cell phone.

first of that group to be selected for cosmona ut training eight years earlier. He carried out his own programme of scientific study, the Russians stressing that none of his activity was military, as such practice is banned from the ISS. Sharipov was celebrated by a minisheet from his Kyrgyz homeland in 2005 (above) showing the space station nearing completion in the background.

The crew had severe problems with the Elektron oxygen generator which was failing every three days or so and requiring manual starts. These shutdowns were found to be centred on the liquid units that held trapped gas During the tenth expedition this crew would complete inside micro-pumps, despite using purified water. two Pirs-based EVAs, receive two Progress supply craft visits and relocate Canadarm2. Problems with the The crew completed their programme of many Elektron unit continued, repairs were made to EVA maintenance tasks and returned to earth with test suits, an upgrade made to the computer software, cosmonaut Yuri Shargin in October. trouble experienced with the toilet in Zvezda and a heat exchanger replaced in Quest.

Soyuz TMA 5

(launched 14.10.2004)

EO-10

There was concern in November that food was running low with it due to run out in mid-January, but this was found to be down to poor record keeping because of the increased work load of a two person crew and anyway Progress M51 arrived to solve the problem and the shuttle’s impending return to flight would also help.

The two members of the new resident crew arrived at the ISS in mid-October, the Commander Leroy Chiao, and Salizhan Sharipov accompanied by Russian Yuri Shargin, who would stay only for the week or so.

Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky had been scheduled to become the third paying space flight participant but failed a late medical test and so was replaced by a Russian Spaces Forces cosmonaut, the

Germany 2004 and Japan 2005 show the station nearing completion

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Soyuz TMA 6

EO-11

On 28th July the first shuttle crew to visit the ISS for two and half years arrived via Discovery.

This was a very experienced crew commanded by Eilleen Collins. By now the decision to use the shuttle to complete station assembly and then retire it had been taken. The station then looked as it does in this 2006 issue from Sierra Leone. As Discovery approached the ISS it flew around it at a distance of some 180 metres to allow the crew on board to photograph the underside of the shuttle to check for launch damage.

This, rather worryingly, revealed the loss of two protruding tile gap fillers. Because these might cause hot spots on re-entry extra EVAs were designed to The eleventh resident crew manually extract them, during which an astronaut would be the first to receive (Stephen Robinson) ventured under the shuttle’s body a shuttle mission since STS- for the first time ever in orbital operations.

113 in December 2002, because the loss of Discovery also brought up MPLM Raffaello, carrying a Columbia had created the large amount of supplies including the Human Research need to fly two-man Facility 2 and the new CMG 2 gyroscope. resident crews, but the docking of STS-114 in July As the shuttle departed after over 12 days at the station would signify the impending return to full station both crews photographed each other’s spacecraft. The operation. second shuttle Return to Flight mission was then delayed because of questions about the integrity of the Italian ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori was back at the foam fixtures on the External Tanks.

ISS in the company of Russian Sergei Krikalev, making his sixth flight and American civilian John Phillips as In August the Vodzukh CO² removal system on the ISS science officer. This time Vittori completed research failed and the American unit in Destiny was activated under the Eneide programme, doing experiments in to take over. On 16th August Krikalev, the first person human physiology, biology and also getting involved in to complete two residences and the first cosmonaut to educational demonstrations. fly six missions became the longest served Russian cosmonaut with over 747 days of spaceflight The new crew was not long on board before the experience. Next day, 17th August, Krikalev and Phillips Elektron system finally broke down in early May, performed the only EVA of Expedition 11, after which though there were sufficient alternative sources of they prepared for their next visitors via Soyuz TMA7 oxygen on board. These would be complemented by which would carry in Gary Olsen the third spaceflight Shuttle and Progress deliveries, such as Progress M53 participant and the new two man resident crew of Bill in June which also carried spare parts for the Elektron McArthur and Valery Tokarev. unit which the crew worked on, in addition to routine maintenance tasks and the repositioning of their Soyuz Soyuz TMA 7 (launched 1.10.2005) EO-12 from Pirs to Zarya.

STS-114

(launched 15.4.2005)

(launched 26.7.2005)

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To be continued…..

ORBIT ORBIT

The Naming of Craters

Einstein (Diam 160 km Lat °N 18 Long °W 86) A large crater which lies along the Western limb of the Moon therefore difficult to observe 2: from Earth and discovered only The Moon : Second Quadrant (North-West) in 1952 by Patrick Moore.

Named after the German theoretical physicist and We learn from our main source, Atlas of the Universe by philosopher (1879-1955) Patrick Moore (Philip’s 1999)……..

(India 1979)

Encke (Diam 32 km Lat °N 5 Long °W 37) Located on the W edge of Mare Insularum to the S SE of crater Kepler. Named after German astronomer Johann Frank Encke (1791-1865). (Comoros Isles

1986)

Euler (Diam 25 km Lat °N 23 Long °W 29) Located in the southern half of the Mare Imbrium its most notable nearby feature is Mons Vinogradov to the W-SW, Named after Leonard Euler (1707—83) the Swiss mathematician and physicist.

(E.

Germany 1950)

J. Herschel (Diam 145 km Lat °N 62 Long °W 41) A large walled plain which appears foreshortened when viewed from Earth.

Named after British mathematician, chemist and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792—1871). (Centre of G.B. 1970 ) Kepler (Diam 35 km Lat °N 8 Long °W 38) This lies between the Oceanus Procellarum to the W and Mare Insularm in the E with crater Encke to the SE. Named after German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571—1630). (Czech Rep 2009)

Selected Craters illustrated….

Archimedes (Diam 75 km Lat °N 30 Long °W 4) A large impact crater on the Eastern edges of the Mare Imbrium with Montes Archimedes mountains to the South.

Named after the Greek mathematician and scientist who lived c 287—212 B.C.

Lavoisier (Diam 71 km Lat °N 36 Long ° W 70) Located near the NW limb at the W edge of Oceanus Procellarum this lies to the SW (San Marino 1982). of crater von Braun and SE of Bunsen.

Named in honour of “the Father of Modern Copernicus (Diam 97 km Lat °N 10 Long °W 20) Chemistry” the French chemist Antoine A prominent feature named Lavoisier (1743—1794). (France 1943). after the famous Polish astronomer (1473—1543) and located in the eastern Oceanus Le Verrier (Diam 25 km Lat °N 40 Long Procellarum, this is estimated to °W 20) be around 800 million years old A small nearly circular bowl shaped and is typical of craters of that feature in the N part of the Mare Imbrium, period having a very clear ray just E of the larger Helicon. Named for system. (Soviet Union 1973) the French mathematical astronomer Urbain Le Verrier (1811—1877) (France

1958)

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Otto Struve (Diam 160 km Lat °N 25 Long °W 75) This is a vast lava flooded plain near the W edge of Oceanus Procellarum close the W limb of the Moon and so appears foreshortened. Named in honour of German astronomers Friedrich von Struve (Russian V.Y. Struve) (1793-1864) and son (Otto) and grandson (Otto). (USSR 1964)

Hevelius (Diam 122 km Lat °N 2 Long °W 67) This is a low-rimmed crater on the W edge of the Oceanus Procellarum named after Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611—1687) - “the founder of lunar topography”.

(Poland

1987)

Pythagoras (Diam 113 km Lat °N 65 Long °W 65) This prominent feature lies near the NW limb just NW of the somewhat larger Babbage. It has an oval appearance due to the oblique viewing angle from Earth and only part of it can be viewed from Earth. Named after Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos (c 570—c 495 BC).

(San 1982).

Marino

Babbage (Diam 143 km Lat °N 60 Long °W 57) An ancient crater located near the NW limb named after British mathematician, philosopher and computing pioneer Charles Babbage (1791—1871) (GB 2010)

Plato (Diam 97 km Lat °N 51 Long °W 9) The lava-filled remains of a crater on the NE shore of Mare Imbrium at the W extremity of Montes Alpes, named after the Classical Greek philosopher and mathematician (c 428—c 348 BC) (Greece

1998)

Schiaparelli (Diam 29 km Lat °N 23 Long °W 59) A small crater on the W part of Oceanus Procellarum, to the W of Herodotus and named after Giovanni Schiaparelli,(18351910) Italian astronomer and science historian, famous for his misinterpreted comments re “canali” on Mars. (Hungary 1974)

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ORBIT

Ulugh Beigh (Diam 70 km Lat °29 2 Long °W 85) The remnant of a crater just to the W of Oceanus Procellarum, near the NW limb—foreshortened from the Earth.

Named after Ulugh Beg, Persian ruler a n d a s t r o n om e r /m a t h em a t i c i an .

ASTEROIDS Some Bits and Pieces

(Turkey 1983)

Von Braun (Diam 60 km Lat °41 2 Long °W 78) Named after rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun (1912 -77) this is located near the NW limb on the W edge of Oceanus Procellarum and to the NE of Lavoisier.

More on Lunar Craters

Our Chairman, Margaret Morris forwarded the article opposite from the March 1989 issue of Sky & Telescope, which is of interest in the context of our new series, explaining as it does how several Far Side craters have been named after astronauts and cosmonauts.

Orbit for June 2010

(Guinea Biussau 2006)

Our last issue contained one glaring error, for which your editor apologises. The number on the front “85” was the same as the number for the March issue. This will cause problems when Harvey Duncan issues the next version of the index. A lovely cover again by your Editor’s wife but spoiled by this typo. Sorry !

Uncatalogued Hungarian Stamp Referenced in Spaceflight Article The

Flown STS-8 Covers

June

2010 issue of Spaceflight magazine contained a five page article by Nándo Schuminszky celebrating the first Hungarian in space whose flight in Soyuz 36 occurred 30 years before,on 26th May 1980.

These are referred to at the bottom of the left hand column of p 27 of this edition in Umberto Cavallaro’s article where we learn that there were well over a quarter of a million of them.

A side panel to the article reproduced right contains images of a pair of stamps with two subtle differences—in bottom left hand corner, the date “1979” and “1980” and right—the face value.

The article goes on to explain how unexpected events delayed the flight by a year. Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas was due to be launched in mid-June 1979 in Soyuz 34, but his flight was cancelled following the failure of Soyuz 33 carrying Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov to dock with Salyut 6. Soyuz 34 was eventually launched unmanned to provide a fresh ferry for the resident crew to use.

In anticipation of the 1979 flight a large number of associated souvenirs, including posters, emblems and stamps, had been prepared but had to be destroyed, though evidently some escaped !

However, the 1979 version of the eventual SG 3320 is not listed in WEEBAU or Gibbons. If any members have any info about these unissued stamps please share it with us.

Alan Tunnicliffe, editor of NZ Air Mail News advises that New Zealand stamp dealer J.R.Mowbray has for sale at NZ $75 a piece flown STS-8 space covers date stamped 14 Aug 1983 at KSC, with launch and return cancels and bearing a $9.35 stamp.

NZ$75 = US$53 or £35 This seems a rather high price for flown STS-8 covers given the number available and members will possibly be able to obtain the item cheaper with an internet search.

Solar Sails and The Sun

Peter Hoffman comments on John Beenen’s feature on The Sun in our June 2010 issue…. “In the Solar Sails section, on page 8 mention is made of the failed launch of Cosmos-1. What is not mention is that is was a project of The Planetary Society http://www.planetary.org/home/. They are working on a new version called LightSail, the first of which is planned for a launch later this year. In case you are not familiar with it, The Planetary Society is a privately funded space advocacy group founded in part by Carl Sagan.

“The Planetary Society yearly presents the Cosmos Award for Outstanding Public Presentation of Science, in honour of Carl Sagan. This year's winner was Stephen Hawking. They printed his acceptance speech "Why go into space?" An amusing comment was a quote from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere is that none of it has tried to contact us."

“The Japanese Space Agency launched its solar sail spacecraft IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-Craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) together with its Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki on 20 May. You can read about it at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/japan-venus-wrap100520.html”

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Spaceflight Books for Sale Books about Space and/or Astronomy in English: *The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Space, 1990, 386 pages, coffee table book euro 15,00 *Life in Space, D. Monche’ 1979 “ 5,00 *The Conquest of Space, Willy Ley & Chesley Bonestell+pictures, 1952! RARE “ 20,00 *Star Hunters, D. Mammana, 1990, coffee table book “ 10,00 *The Rocket, David Baker, 276p.+490pictures, 1978, coffee table book, classic! “ 20,00 *The History of Manned Spaceflight, David Baker, 576p.+362pictures, 1985,coffee.” 20,00 *The Observer’s Spaceflight Directory, R. Turnill, 384p., 1978 “ 10,00 *The Observer’s Book of Unmanned Spaceflight+Manned Spaceflight 1974+1975 “ 10,00 *The Observer’s Book Of Astronomy, Patrick Moore 1973 “ 5,00 *Basic Astronomy, Patrick Moore, 1967 “ 3,00 *Space, a Novel, James A. Michener, pocket Ballantine 1983 “ 2,50 *Voyagers, Ben Bova, 1983 pocket “ 2,50 *The Universe, Herbert Zim 1973 “ 2,00 *Exploring Other Worlds, Wyber&Ames 1968 “ 2,00 *Tomorrow’s Moon, Henry Little 1969 “ 2,00 *Observatories of the World, Marx & Pfau 1982 “ 10,00 *Are We Alone? Paul Davis, Penquin 1995 “ 2,50 *Moonport USA (Kennedy Space Center), 1977 “ 2,50 *Living in Space (Colonies), J. Trefil 1981 “ 5,00 *The Cosmonauts, Gordon Hooper 1977 “ 2,50 *Extraterrestrials-Where Are They? Zuckerman &Hart 1995 “ 10,00 *The Cosmic Connection, Carl Sagan, pocket 1975 “ 3,00 *Exploring the Planets, Ian Nicolson, 1972 “ 2,50 *Jane’s pocket Book 11: Space Exploration, 1976 “ 3,00 *Twenty-First Report Internat. Telecomm. Union, Geneva 1982 “ 2,50 *Satellites & Space Travel, Taylor &Allward, 1970? “ 2,00 *Watchers of the Stars, Patrick Moore, 1974 “ 5,00 *Robot Explorers, Kenneth Garland, 1972 “ 5,00 *APOLLO by astronaut Alan Bean+paintings Bean in space, 1998, coffeetable “ 20,00 *The World of Mars, V.A. Firsoff, 1969 “ 2,00 *Missiles and Rockets, Kenneth Garland “ 5,00 *Stars and Planets, Ian Ridpath, 1978 “ 5,00 *Race to Mars, The ITN Mars Flight Atlas, 1988 “ 5,00 *Worlds Beyond, Search for Life in Space, Ian Ridpath 1975 “ 5,00 *CETI, Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Stonelay 1976 “ 2,50 *Horizon, at the Edge of the Universe, 9 chapters of astronomers 1983 “ 3,00 *The New Race for Space James Oberg 1984 “ 5,00 *The Hunt for Life on Mars, Goldsmith 1998 “ 5,00 *The High Road, Ben Bova pocket 1983 “ 2,50 *Operation Morning Light, the True Story of Cosmos 954, Leo Heaps, 1978 “10,00 *Space Volunteers, T. Kay 1960 “ 3,00 *Legal Aspects of Outer Space, Dr. C. Reijnen, 1976, 205 pages, the World’s First Thesis of this Kind by female Dutch scholar “ 4,00 E-MAIL: bertvaneijck@home.nl if interested in any to discuss sale and postage See further list on page 24 14

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The above obituary and tribute by David Shayler appeared in the August 2010 of Spaceflight magazine, marking the passing of Rex Hall who was also one of

the longest standing members of the ASSS, carrying the membership number 88033. We extend our condolences to Rex’s family.

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 35

By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

The Discoverer series This is the thirty-fifth in a series of articles about unmanned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the satellites in the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Discoverer series. The first Discoverer was launched on 21 January 1959 and the last one on 18 April 1962.

There were a total of 39 launches, a third (or 13) of which were failures. The Discoverer series, also called Corona satellites, were later declassified as the first Keyhole (KH) spy satellites.

"Discoverer" was the public name of the Corona series of film-return reconnaissance spy satellites, whose true mission was not officially revealed until about 35 years after the program ended. The Discoverers' secret program was masked by scientific goals; it was kept secret even from program staff who knew nothing about Corona. Scientific instruments were even placed on Discoverer satellites, and then covertly removed before launch.

The Discoverer satellites were designed to take pictures of target countries, and then eject a film capsule, which was to de-orbit and enter the Earth’s atmosphere on a parachute and be recovered by a specially-modified aircraft as it floated downward. On many of the missions, however, the capture of the film capsules was not successful for various reasons. The first successful return of a capsule through the Earth's atmosphere occurred with Discoverer-13, though in this case the aerial capture failed and the capsule fell into the sea. Fortunately, that mission carried no cameras.

Discoverer-14 was the first completely successfully Corona mission, in which reconnaissance photos were taken from the spy satellite and ejected in a capsule which was then successfully recovered in a mid-air capture carried out by a C-119 aircraft.

Top: KH-4B Corona satellite Above: Recovery of Discoverer 14 return capsule (typical for the Corona series (ex Wikipedia) A checklist of postal items identified as showing Discovererseries satellites (http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/ Discoverer.htm) is available as part of the Website developed by the authors to accompany this series of articles (http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/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.

Because of secret nature of their mission, the Discoverer satellites were not well-known and so were not featured on many postal items. A set of three stamps issued by Libya in 1966 (Scott 297-299) shows a Discoverer capsule. There is also a local post item from Batum that depicts the recovery of a Discoverer capsule, and a souvenir sheet from Chad ( Michel BL247) that shows the re-entry of a Discoverer capsule in the margin. Another capsule recovery is shown in the margin of a souvenir sheet issued by the Malagasy Republic in 1999 (Scott 1502a).

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for ?? sic) 16

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Shuttle Story : 2010/11

STS–130, -131, -132 Part One

STS-130 (ISS assembly flight 20A) via Endeavour carried as its primary payloads the Tranquility module and the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the centre, providing a 360-degree view around the station.. Endeavour launched at 04:14 EST (09:14 UTC) on 8 February 2010 and landed at 22:20 EST on 21 February 2010 on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.

Tranquility was shipped from the Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy. It arrived at Kennedy Space Center on 21 May 2009. It was formerly known as Node 3, and was named by a NASA poll.

The module provides six berthing locations, however three of those locations are disabled as modules originally planned to be attached to Tranquility were cancelled. The photo right shows Tranquility just before being installed to Unity node STS-130 also brought the Cupola, a large window module and robotics work station to the ISS which was to be attached to the nadirside of Tranquility. The module also includes various ISS syste ms, including a d di t i o na l l i fe s up po r t systems. This photo shows the facility being prepared at KSC, whilst the photo above right shows the module and cupola being moved into position on the ISS.

Flight

STS-130

Commander Pilot

George Zamka Terry Virtis

MS MS MS MS MS

Kathryn Hire Stephen Robinson Nicholas Patrick Robert Behnken Koichi Wakata

KSC Launch Date : 8.2.2010 KSC Landing : 21.2.10 Purpose / Main Payload

Tranquility Module and Cupola

The shape of the mission patch on the launch cover below represents the cupola over the earth, in a photo taken by the unmanned Lunar Orbiter probe in 1966, so representing a past and future designation for explorers from Earth.

For other Zazzle stamps see page 33

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STS-131 (ISS assembly flight 19A) via Discovery launched on 5 April 2010 from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A and landed at 9:08 AM on 20 April 2010 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. The mission marked the longest flight for space shuttle Discovery.

Flight

STS-131

Commander Pilot

Alan Pointdexter James Dutton

The primary payload was a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module loaded with supplies and equipment for the ISS. The mission also removed and replaced an ammonia tank assembly outside the station on the S1 truss. The mission also included several onboard payloads; this mission had the most payloads since STS107.

MS MS

Rick Mastracchio Dorthy MetcalfLindenburger Stephanie Wilson Naoko Yamakazi Clayton Anderson

MS MS MS

The primary payload of STS-131 was MPLM Leonardo filled with food and science supplies and also carried the third and final KSC Launch Date : 5.4.10 Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI), Window KSC Landing : 20.4.10 Orbital Research Facility (WORF), one Crew Quarters Rack, the Muscle Atrophy Resistive Exercise (MARES) rack, Resupply Purpose / MPLM Leonardo Stowage Racks (RSRs), as well as Resupply Stowage Platforms Main Payload (RSPs). The Lightweight Multi-Purpose Equipment Support Structure Carrier (LMC) carried a refurbished Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA) to the ISS. The refurbished ATA was removed programme to carry three female astronauts, from the Space Station and returned for use on this mission the others being STS-40 and STS-96 during STS-128. It was swapped with an empty tank which will With three female crew members arriving on ride home on the LMC. board Discovery and Expedition 23 Flight This mission was the second flight of the TriDAR, a 3D dual- Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson at the station, sensing laser camera, intended for potential use as an the STS-131 mission marked the first time autonomous rendezvous and docking sensor. TriDAR provides that four women have been in space at one guidance information that can be used to guide a vehicle during time. rendezvous and docking operations in space. TriDAR does not rely on any reference markers, such as reflectors, positioned on STS-131 marked the first time that two Japanese astronauts, Naoko Yamazaki from the target spacecraft. the Shuttle crew, and Soichi Noguchi on the ISS, had been in space together.

This was the final Space Shuttle mission that contains one or more "rookie" astronauts; the missions after this will have allveteran crews.

Although Naoko Yamazaki is not the last nonU.S. astronaut, Naoko was the last Japanese STS-131 was only the third mission in the Space Shuttle astronaut to fly the space shuttle

MPLM Leonardo can be seen in the shuttle cargo bay.

The seven stars either side of our sun represent the crew members.

The shuttle’s orientation indicates it is performing the Rendezvous Pitch Manoeuvre which allows the ISS to photograph its underbelly.

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STS-132 (ISS assembly flight ULF4) docked with the ISS on May 16, 2010. It was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on May 14, 2010. The primary payload is the Russian Rassvet MiniResearch Module along with an Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable (ICC-VLD). STS-132 is scheduled to be the final flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis provided that the STS-335 Launch On Need rescue mission is not flown.

Rassvet

means "dawn" in Russian. The module was built

by Russian aerospace company Energia and arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) aboard an Antonov 124 cargo plane on 17 December 2009 After it was unloaded from the Antonov, the module was transported to an Astrotech processing bay in Cape Canaveral to undergo preparations for launch, shown in this photo.

An airlock and radiation heat exchanger to be used for outfitting the Russian Nauka Module (to be launched in 2012), a spare elbow part of the European Robotic Arm (ERA) and a portable work platform for science hardware for performing experiments in outer space were externally mounted on Rassvet in its launch configuration. Russian and US cargo delivered was also accommodated inside the module. The volume for cargo and science inside MRM1 is 5 cubic meters.] Rassvet was outfitted with ISS standard grapple fixtures that allowed the module to be unloaded from the payload bay of Atlantis using the station's robotic arm.

The ICC pallet is constructed of aluminum. It is approximately 8 feet long, 13 feet wide and 10 inches thick. The empty weight of the pallet is 2,645 pounds. The total weight of ICC窶天LD and the ORUs is approximately 8,330 pounds. ICC-VLD return mass is 2,933 kilograms (6,470 lb).

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Flight

STS-132

Commander Pilot

Kenneth Ham Dominic Antonelli

MS MS MS MS

Michael Good Garret Reisman Piers Sellars Stephen Bowen

KSC Launch Date : 14.5.2010 KSC Landing : 26.5.2010 Purpose / Main Payload

Delivery of Russian Rassvet Module

The ICC-VLD was berthed in the centre of the payload bay for both launch and re-entry.

In the photo above Rassvet is shown centre top.

The mission patch shows Atlantis flying off into the sunset as the end of the shuttle programme approaches.

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The Tower of the Winds: The Oldest Planetarium on Stamps and Postal Stationery?

By André Scheer and Margaret Morris This fascinating structure is an octagonal pentelic marble tower on the Roman agora or marketplace in Athens. It was supposedly built by the astronomer Andronicus of Kyrrhos c. 50 BC but according to other sources might have been constructed in the 2 nd century BC before the rest of the forum.

The structure is 12 metres high with a diameter of approximately 8 metres. On each of the eight sides (aligned with the eight principal points of the compass) is a sculpture featuring the wind gods and below each sculpture is engraved a sundial. Thus the tower served as a solar clock but additionally in the interior was a water-clock (clepsydra) driven by water coming down from the Acropolis. There were mechanical hour indicators and displays for the seasons of the year with astrological dates and periods. The tower was topped in antiquity by a weather-vane in the shape of a triton with a wand which pointed at whichever of the winds was blowing. The tower must have been one of the most useful structures in the agora as it showed the time for civilian purposes and indicated the wind direction for merchants awaiting the arrival of a ship.

Front and back of postal stationery postcard

The earliest philatelic items to depict this unusual building are postal stationery postcards originating from 1900 when the Greek postal authorities organised a competition for photographers and artists. The best pictures were selected for issue and on 1 July 1901 the first series of 32 cards was issued. In total 12 series of 32 cards each were issued between then and 20 March 1903. The cards were issued in three colours (chestnut, black and green) with imprinted stamps of two values (5 lepta green for national mail and 10 lepta red for international mail). The cards additionally have an impressed stamp without colour on the left side, being 10 lepta for the card itself, so the cards were sold for 15 and 20 lepta. The design of the imprinted stamps was based on the Hermes (Mercury) statue by Giovanni da Bologna. During the war on the Balkans the cards were used by the Greek army and have an extra imprint – Carte Postale – Franchise Militaire.

Examples of Greek postal stationery from the early 20th century

Front and back of postal stationery postcard

A few examples of these postal stationery postcards are illustrated opposite and on page 23. The wording “L’horloge de Kyrrhestes” refers to the timepiece built

by Andronicus of Kyrrhos while “TEMPLE D’EOLE” translates as “Temple of Aeolus” (Aeolus = god of the winds).

For each card 12 versions can be distinguished – i.e. 3 colours x 2 values x 2 usages.

For fuller information see reference no. 1. Of course numerous picture postcards also feature this interesting structure.

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The 1942/3 issues (SG 561-572) of Greece shown beside the 1973 Dominica souvenir sheet whose designer has reinterpreted the divine sculptures in the margins Boreas, also on the 100d value, in black and grey

Kaikias in two 50d vals, black and grey, violet and blue

Skiron

Zephyrus in two 25d vals orange, and green

Apeliotes in two 10d vals, red brown and red orange

Eurus

Lips

Notus

The following table gives details of the sculptures and the characteristics attributed to each of the wind gods.

For fuller information see reference no 2.

Wind Direction North

Name of Deity Boreas

Characteristics of the Sculpture An old man wearing heavy clothing and holding a conch shell. This wind was cold, fierce and stormy and in Athens made a loud, hollow noise.

North East

Kaikias

Old man with severe expression, holding circular shield from which he will drop hailstones.

Weather characteristically cloudy, wet and cold.

East

Apeliotes

Young man with hair flowing in every direction, holding a cloak full of fruit and grain – he brings gradual, gentle rain.

South East

Eurus

Old man with morose countenance, wrapped tightly against the elements in his cloak.

This wind brought sultry, gloomy weather with much rain.

South

Notus

Young man emptying an urn and producing a shower of water. This wind was associated with sultry, very wet weather

South West

Lips

Boy pushing the stern of a ship, promising a good sailing wind. This was the wind which blew right into Piraeus harbour.

West

Zephyrus

Beautiful, lightly clad youth of happy aspect, holding a cloak full of flowers. In summer, this wind brought very sultry weather.

North West

Skiron

Bearded man with a bronze pot full of hot ashes and charcoal. This was a dry wind, extremely cold in winter but scorching and with lightning in summer.

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The sculptures of the eight winds were depicted on stamps of Greece issued in 1942 (six designs) and 1943 (again six designs – four as the previous issue but including the two omitted winds). Five values were surcharged in 1944 to aid victims of the Piraeus bombing of 11 January 1944; the exceptionally high face value resulted in few of these stamps being used. Later in 1944 the same five values were surcharged in aid of a Children’s Convalescent Camp Fund. Finally in 1946 two values of the 1942 issue were surcharged – the 10dr. value in black and the 50dr. revalued as 20dr. in red. See opposite for examples of the stamp designs.

In addition to these attractive engraved stamps, the 1973 issue from Dominica commemorating the centenary of the World Meteorological Organisation included a miniature sheet incorporating the 50c. and $1 values and surrounded in the margin by images of all eight wind sculptures (see page 22). More recently, the cover of a booklet issued by Greece on 7 October 1988 provides an aerial view of the agora and the Tower of the Winds can be detected (see below). The booklet contains 16 stamps (4 each of 4 different values) and celebrates capitals of Greek provinces.

Front and back of postal stationery postcard

In early Christian times the building was used as the bell tower of a Byzantine Church. It was partly buried in the ground until fully excavated in the 19th century by the Archaeological Society of Athens.

It is interesting to note that the design of the upper octagon of the 18th century Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, England, is based on the Tower of the Winds as is the mausoleum of the founder of the Greek National Library, Panayis Vagliano at West Norwood Cemetery, London. There is a similar tower in Sevastopol, built in 1849.

References: 1.

“Entiers Postaux Illustrés, du service des postes helléniques et leurs précurseurs”, Georges Mathas, 1985.

Examples of Overprints, from left to right 1944 Piraeus Bombing Aid 1944 Children’s convalescent camp fund 1946 Surcharge Below : Cover of the 1988 stamp booklet

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2.

For finely detailed drawings and information about the sculptures, you may care to see if your Library has a copy of “The Antiquities of Athens”, Stuart & Revett, Vol. 1, published in London, 1762.

3.

Article by Derek J. de Solla Price in “National Geographic, April 1967 pp.587-596

4.

Much useful information may also be obtained from sites on the internet.

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Old Photo Makes New(s) Story

ministers, high ranked military, artists, judges and astronauts.

A photo taken twenty-one years ago became And what about some of the most recent ones? Did I hot international new(s) this July, writes Bert indeed visit and honour the seven Challenger astronauts in their last resting place on Earth, in November 1989, as shown on the photo. Or are they perhaps mistakenly buried in another unmarked grave? This is hard to believe, but one never knows……

van Eijck.

For those who wonder what was doing 21 years ago in the US capital: I visited the World Stamp Expo’89 at the Convention Center in Washington D.C. Of course I did more, sightseeing at and in the famous Smithsonian Museums (a must the National Air&Space Museum with 10 million visitors a year), the Capitol, the metro (deepest in the world), George Washington’s house in Vernon, Arlington of course, and much more.

At the World Stamp Expo there was a presentation of both USA and USSR space stamps. The American stamps were Author and the Challenger astronauts monument at Arlington; seven figures presented by astronaut Buzz Aldrin; the in bronze (left). At right a plaque honoring US-soldiers killed in action saving Soviet stamps by cosmonaut Gherman hostages in Iran.

Titov.

It is a picture of your correspondent in front of the monument on the graves of the seven astronauts killed in the Challenger disaster. The photo from November 1989 shows the national cemetery at Arlington in Washington D.C. And it is this graveyard, a national American field of pride and honour, that was involved in a scandal, making news all over the world.

What happened?

This became a hot story after it was leaked to the press that in 211 graves on Arlington the wrong corpse had been buried. But this disgrace grew to international proportions when the U.S. Senate published a report which revealed that it was not 211 but 6600 graves that had been so dishonoured. And maybe there are more, the researchers stated.

Consequently it meant that family members had been paying their respect at the wrong graves, because many were not marked well or the ground-plan directed to wrong places.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (left) presents the US space stamps, while cosmonaut Gherman Titov (right) does the same with Soviet space stamps. In the middle officials of USPS. Below the stamps….

Arlington’s director John Metzler was fired, as was his depute, Thurman Higginbotham, both of whom said they knew there were made mistakes, but they could not help “because of economy.”

Arlington cemetery was opened in 1864. Since then 300,000 Americans have been buried here, including famous or well-known persons, like presidents, 24

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The Apollo 15 Cover Scandal In a feature which first appeared in the AprilJune 2010 issue of Ad Astra the web journal of the Italian Astrophilatelic Association, its editor reveals in considerable detail the full story of those covers which today sell for so much money.

The Apollo 15 flown covers are among the best known collectibles from the Apollo Era, mainly because of what Jim Irwin recalls as “the problem we brought back from the Moon”.

The crew of Apollo 15 carried out one of the most complete scientific explorations of the Moon: the first lunar roving vehicle was operated on the Moon to extend the range of exploration; some 180 pounds of lunar surface samples were returned for analysis. Yet Fifteen is best remembered as the crew that carried envelopes to the moon and the whole mission is remembered for the “great postal caper”.

Fig 1. The official U.S.P.S. cover postmarked on the Moon.

Apollo 15 was not the first mission to carry covers: dozens were carried on each flight from Apollo 11 onwards and, as Commander Dave Scott recalls in his book, the whole business had probably been building since Mercury, through Gemini, and into Apollo. People had a fascination with objects that had been carried in space, and they became more and more popular, and valuable, as the programme progressed. Right from the start of the Mercury programme, each astronaut had been allowed to carry on board a certain number of personal items.

by Umberto Cavallaro

purposes or personal gain. Astronaut kits typically included badges, jewellery, coins, medals, flags, stamps, postal covers, currency, printed materials, and similar easily packed, lightweight mementoes. As the flight became more significant, the number and type of items increased.

Aside from personal mementoes, each crew had carried medallions whose number had grown steadily on each mission. In his book, The All-American Boys astronaut Walter Cunningham reveals that it was rumoured around the Astronaut Office that Apollo 14 carried on board a personal package weighing fortytwo pounds . Before that flight, the Franklin Mint had even advertised the proposed sale. After the flight the commercial deal was never completed and all went quiet, nothing about it being published in the media.

But some members of the U.S. Congress were unhappy of the situation.

In that context, the “lapses of judgment” of the Apollo 15 crew became fatal: Dave Scott went too far, carrying on board a total of 641 postal covers (including the two official covers) of which only 243 were listed and authorized before the flight, and 398 were not -- secretly carried on board Apollo 15 by Scott in a pocket of his space suit. Had they been listed as being in Scott's PPK, they would probably have been routinely approved for inclusion in the preference kit.

The 243 listed and authorized covers include: • 2 official U.S. Postal Service covers, one of which, the “Official Cover”, was publicly cancelled on the moon by Scott at the request of the U.S. Postal Service 10 (Fig. 1); • 1 Wright Brothers commemorative cover, dated 1928 and autographed by Orville Wright, which was carried by Worden for a friend; • 1 cover bearing a First Man on the Moon stamp and a Bliss Centennial three-cent stamp, carried by Irwin for Barbara Baker (Fig. 2, below);

NASA was in the habit of authorizing astronauts to carry certain personal items on manned flights, known as Astronauts’ PPK (Personal Preference Kits). All such items had to be listed and approved by Deke Slayton, the Head of the Astronaut Office, prior to launch, and were intended for private use or as personal gifts after the flight, and could not be employed for commercial 25

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8 Shamrock covers carried by Irwin (as below)

The 398 unauthorized covers (initially there were 400, but 2 were damaged and discarded) are lightweight envelopes carrying, as a cachet, a replica of the official Apollo 15 patch overprinted with an Air Force wing and propeller emblem.

144 Herrick’s “Moon Phases” covers carried by Worden (Fig. 4), printed with a cachet showing 15 phases of the moon. On the USS Okinawa, the Apollo 15 recovery ship, the astronauts placed two eight-cent stamps, purchased on board by Worden, on each of these covers and they had the covers cancelled by the shipboard post office.

The astronauts later autographed these covers while flying back from Hawaii to Houston. Sixteen covers were torn or damaged and were destroyed. Because of the furore created by the Apollo 15 covers incident, NASA confiscated 61 of these 144 'Moon Phases' covers.

The idea of these additional covers was suggested during a cocktail party by Eiermann, a salesman for the heat-shield contractor, who had frequent business and social contacts with NASA personnel and astronauts. He suggested to fly 400 lightweight covers: 100 for each of the astronauts and 100 for his friend Sieger, the German stamp dealer. The cacheted covers were provided by Al Bishop, a friend of many astronauts, then at the Howard Hughes organization. He had already provided covers for the previous flights, since Apollo 12.

Above one of the 100 Sieger covers with the handwritten note “Landed at Hadley, Moon, July 30, 1971. On the reverse is a typed and notarised inscription “This is to certify that this cover was on board the Falcon at the HadleyApennine, Moon, July 30 –Aug 2 1971” Below one of the 298 unauthorised covers, carried to the Moon by David Scott with the inscription “This envelope was carried to the Moon aboard the Apollo 15. #.................of 300 to the Lunar Surface in L.M.”Falcon”.

87 Apollo 12 covers (Fig. 5) that, for unknown reason, did not fly on that mission and which were carried on Apollo 15 for Mrs. Barbara Gordon, a stamp collector, then wife of Richard Gordon, Apollo 12 astronaut, who at was the back-up pilot for Apollo 15.

26

The crews usually returned to Bishop a couple of flown covers, signed, with gratitude. “To my knowledge – Cunningham reports, in his well documented book – Bishop never sold any and never made a dime off his relationship. He was simply a fan.

To Al Bishop , Apollo 15 was no different from any other flight, except for a phone call he received from Hal Collins, the Astronaut Office manager at the Cape.

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Collins told Bishop that the crew would like to know whether he could obtain some very lightweight envelopes for them. Al said that he'd be happy to do so.

He was unaware then that many of them would be smuggled on board the next lunar flight. Al was trusted.

That's why many of us imposed on him with our problems, special requests and, sometimes, matters which we would rather not share with NASA”.

the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-8 and the 500.000 $9.95 Express Mail stamp created by Paul and Chris Calle in 1994, flown on Endeavour STS-68 in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. The huge number of such items carried in space discourages speculations and these items still are widely available for few dollars.

This time Al was badly used : he emerged as a scapegoat and his name was dragged as though he was the Mr. Big of an international stamp conspiracy.

The covers were cancelled at Kennedy Space Center several days before July 26, 1971. The date of the post office machine canceller was moved forward.

Additionally, twin eight-cent stamps were purchased by the astronauts on the USS Okinawa, the Apollo 15 recovery ship, and affixed to these covers – as for the Herrick’s covers. In the shipboard post office the covers were then cancelled and date-stamped August 7, 1971.

The astronauts finally autographed these covers while flying from Hawaii to Houston.

So far, fewer than 1000 envelopes in total have flown to the Moon. No other American covers will flow to the Moon in the foreseeable future. Perhaps the next “Moon covers” will bear Chinese or Indian stamps ?

Dave Scott was the first lunar Postmaster and had two postmarks with him and two covers with imperforated dieproof of the US twin Decade of Space Achievements stamps affixed (Fig. 1).

He had one postmark with “Moon Landing, USA” (Fig. 8, below) and another with “United States on the Moon” (Fig. 9 bottom).

Soon after the flight the astronauts gave Eiermann the 100 covers – after agreeing that there was to be no commercialization or advertising of these covers and that nothing would be done with them until after completion of the Apollo programme.

But after a while, news started to circulate that the German dealer was selling in Europe covers flown on Apollo 15, for a reported average of US $1.500 each.

The reports infuriated Congress, not least because congressmen had to read such controversial information in the press, before being informed by NASA, which is obligated to keep Congress fully informed of its activity. Recollection of the Apollo 14 medallions incident must have echoed in the minds of certain members of Congress many of whom were not fans of NASA anyway. NASA started an internal investigation. This was the most controversial development of the Apollo Programme and, although most astronauts were involved to some degree, NASA made an example of the Apollo 15 flight crew. “It was turning into a witch-hunt” recalled Scott, “Our bosses had abrogated their responsibilities and we were left alone on a very wet day”.

It is ironic that, after addressing a joint session of Congress as heroes, in less that one year the three astronauts of Apollo 15 had to go back in front of these same senators in disgrace, because of this envelope scandal.

After this “incident”, NASA prohibited, from Apollo 17 on, the flying of covers or stamps during a space missions (they were not on time to block the covers carried on Apollo 16), The only exceptions have been, since then, the items flown in cooperation with the US Postal Service, i.e. the 266.000 covers carried in 1983 in

The First Lunar Post Office was opened on August 2, 1971 when David Scott postmarked only the official cover (and brought back the official backup-cover uncancelled). A handful covers had however been postmarked before launch with both postmarks. Dr. Matthew Radnofsky – who, in his laboratory, already had simulated cancelling in space for Apollo 11 – tested both postmarks to ensure that the cancellation devices were in working order.

Especially, the date could be changed easily. Contrary to Apollo 11, covers without stamps were used for 27

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these tests. Apollo 15 Lunar Cancellation Proofs are much scarcer than Apollo 11 ones. “As by now, I am aware of only 17 items” states famous astrophilatelist Walter Hopferwieser. Covers with proofs of the Apollo 15 moon postmarks have been recently sold at Regency Superior and Aurora auctions.

The official Apollo 15 cover, postmarked on the Moon (see Fig. 1, repeated above ) is displayed at the U.S. National Postal Museum. It was publicly cancelled and the video can be seen at http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/stampstakeflight/ apollo15video-01.html. A short speech was given by Dave Scott while cancelling the cover: “To show that our good Postal Service has deliveries any place in the universe, I have the pleasant task of cancelling, here on the Moon, the first stamp of a new issue dedicated to commemorate U.S. achievements in space. I have the first one here on an envelope. At the bottom it says, "United States in Space, a decade of achievement," and I'm very proud to have the opportunity here to play postman. I pull out a cancellation device. It says, "August 2, 1971, first day of issue… What could be a better place to cancel this stamp than right here at Hadley Rille…!”

Immediately thereafter, the Postmaster General, who was waiting at the Mission Control at Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, gave the signal to start the First- Day cancellations at post offices in Houston, Kennedy Space Center, and Huntsville.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Walter Hopferwieser for his comments.

Two Sides of The Moon

by David Scott and Alexei Leonov

Some Notes About Space Mail

Commenting on Brian Vincent’s article in the June 2010 Orbit, ASSS member Geoff Chivers writes in an email to your Editor…..

I'm sure you won't mind me commenting on Brian G Vincent's "Some Notes About Space Mail" (page 36)?

In paragraph 2 he refers to the Apollo 15 "cover incident", leaving the impression that Scott, Worden and Irwin were guilty of some heinous crime. This has been the subject of much miss-reporting over the years. The full story of what actually happened is explained in depth at page 328 et seq of "Two sides of the moon" by David Scott and Alexei Leonov, published by Simon & Shuster. The astronauts were, of course, exonerated.

This is the quote (slightly edited to enable it to stand as an independent piece):"During 1972, while on a trip to Washington DC, George Low, NASA deputy administrator, asked me to stop by his office, writes David Scott. I had known George in Houston while he was Apollo spacecraft programme manager and I had great respect for him. We spent a short while exchanging pleasantries. Then George looked me in the eye and came to the point. “Well, Dave,” he said, “I have to tell you I was not very proud of my performance”! His comment was the culmination of what had become known as the Apollo 15 “cover incident”. This involved some first day postal covers which we had carried aboard Apollo 15, some of which were unfortunately sold by a German stamp dealer several months after the flight. As No 2 in NASA, George had been heavily involved in NASA's handling of the incident and his comment, referred to one of the poorest management performances the space agency had ever demonstrated - up to then.

The whole business had probably been building since Mercury, through Gemini, and into Apollo. People had a fascination with objects that had been carried in space, and they became more and more popular, and valuable, as the programme progressed. Right from the start of the Mercury programme, each astronaut had been allowed to carry on board a certain number of personal items in what were known as PPKS - Personal Preference Kits. Before each flight a list of the items was prepared for Deke Slayton, who

The text opposite from the above book has been referred to by Umberto Cavallaro in preparing his above piece 28

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had overall responsibility for approving them. As the flights became more significant, the number and type of items increased. Aside from personal mementoes, each crew had carried a certain number of medallions, which they could hand out afterwards as souvenirs. The number of medallions had grown steadily on each mission - eventually some crew members had been carrying several hundred each and their weight was becoming a concern. And, as always, commercialisation began to creep in. In the end, on Apollo 14 commanded by Al Shepard, it was alleged that the crew had carried some silver medallions on board, which were to be melted down after the flight and mixed with many other commemorative medallions by the Franklin Mint to be sold to the general public. The Franklin Mint had even advertised the proposed sale before the flight. After the flight, the deal was never consummated and all went quiet; nothing about it was printed in the media. But some members of Congress had heard about it and were unhappy with the situation.

Since we were busy training for Apollo 15 (launched 26 July 1971) we knew nothing about all this. Had we known we would have been far more wary of what happened subsequently. All we knew was that Deke Slayton had halved the number of medallions we could carry. Shortly afterwards Deke introduced Jim (Irwin), Al (Worden) and me to a longstanding friend of his at the Cape called Walter Eiermann. In retrospect this seems likely to have been more than a coincidence. Deke invited us to join him at dinner at Eiermann's house one evening, several months before the Apollo 15 launch. Eiermann asked if we would like to make some money on the side by signing some stamps. “All the guys are doing it,” he said. We agreed. We were also approached by several members of the Manned Spacecraft Center’s stamp club, who asked us to sign many first - day covers before the flight for their members as well as for ourselves. At that time we could not buy life insurance. If we signed some covers, we reasoned, they could be held during the flight and act as limited life insurance for our families if anything happened to us. But then Eiermann proposed we carry four hundred lightweight commemorative covers, a hundred of which would be passed on to a stamp dealer in Germany when we returned. All the covers would be franked on the day of launch and franked on the day of our return.

Our understanding was that the dealer would hold his hundred covers to be sold at some future date, after the Apollo programme was over. In return he would set up a $6,000 trust fund for each of us for the education of our children. In the months of intense activity before the flight we did not give this more than a moment of thought. But we agreed. In retrospect we made a mistake in even considering it.

that it was fireproof. Everything in our PPKs was on a list, which was certified before launch. I was never aware of any rules about what could or could not be taken in these packs.

Slayton was to approve the list, so as far as I was concerned it was up to management to keep us on the straight and narrow. I assumed if the list was approved that was fine.

Usually the list was certified by Deke. But before our flight, for some reason, he neither asked us personally for each of our lists, as was customary, nor signed off on the list personally. He said the flight - crew support team had already logged everything. Whereas we had purchased the covers ourselves, the Astronaut Office at the Cape had prepared the covers for the flight and had had them stamped and franked on the day of launch. Somehow however, the support team had missed them when they prepared the PPK flight manifest.

It was also reported after the incident that we had been removed from the astronaut corps. Again, totally untrue.

Unfortunately, NASA managers did nothing to dispel this false and misleading information. They just tucked their heads in and let the rumours run. The reports infuriated Congress, not least because congressmen had to read such controversial information in the press before being informed by NASA, which is obligated to keep Congress fully informed of its activities. Recollections of the Apollo 14 medallion incident must have seeped into the minds of certain members of Congress, many of whom were not fans of NASA anyway.

When NASA started an internal investigation we were told by a senior official in the agency that we were on our own. We were advised to get our own legal representation. A Senate hearing into the matter had been called and a justice Department investigation would follow. It was turning into a witch - hunt. NASA, we were advised, expected us to keep quiet and take the Fifth Amendment at this hearing. We did not. We told it like it was. We had nothing to hide.

Eventually, the Justice Department concluded that we had broken some administrative rules, but had done nothing criminal. NASA confiscated the remaining covers, but they acted before discovering all the facts of the case. Following an investigation by NASA, the Justice Department and the Senate, the Justice Department concluded on 6 December 1978, in a “Memorandum Opinion for the Assistant Attorney General”, that NASA had no claim to the remaining covers; that the covers were never intended for sale; that there was no attempt at concealment by the crew of the fact that the covers were to be flown on Apollo 15; and, finally, that the covers would have been approved to carry aboard Apollo 15 had a request been made. We were reprimanded and we took our licks. But it was a very raw deal. NASA had hung us out to dry. Our bosses had abrogated their responsibilities, In the months following our mission, we learnt that the and we were left alone on a very wet day.

German dealer had begun to sell the covers. We let Eiermann know that we were opposed to the sale. Forget the trust I spent many years trying to get full access to NASA and funds, we said; we don't want any money. This is not what we congressional records on the case. NASA refused to provide had understood would happen. But when senior managers at full disclosure. We subsequently found out there had been NASA learnt about the covers being sold they were furious. rumblings about profit—making on previous missions. A copy Incomplete information was then provided to the press by of a letter was released to me in which NASA admitted that NASA’s Public Affairs Office and reports started to appear that ten other astronauts, who were not identified, had been we had smuggled the covers onto our flight. This was literally involved in selling signed blocks of stamps and postcards for impossible. NASA personnel prepared us for every aspect of Eiermann. But the wave reached the shore on Apollo 15 and the flight - from our birthday suits out. we were the ones who bore the brunt of the blame for such incidents."

Everything we had carried had to be specially packaged by the flight support crew to make sure, apart from anything else,

29

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Buckingham Cover offer : Free Souvenirs for You Brian Austin of Buckingham’s Rare Cover Department writes to your Editor‌.

featuring an Apollo 15 cover. The idea was to give away 100 sets per day to customers at the show, but now the show is all finished I still have around 150 pairs left on my desk.

Over the last two or three years we have been dealing more and more in signed space covers. This led us to earlier this year buying an Apollo 11 crew signed cover which had been carried to the moon, which we had on display on our stand at London 2010.

We wondered if you would like to offer them to your readers : we are happy to send them out free of charge to the first 150 readers to contact us with their details as long as we can also include one of our lists of space covers.

For this we also printed a limited edition of 800 sets of postcards, one featuring the Apollo 11 cover and another

Brian.Austin@buckinghamcovers.com

30

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The missile climbed 10 km above the Atlantic and landed within twenty minutes with all the letters intact.

The letters were cancelled with the hand stamp “USS Harvey Duncan told us in the last Orbit (page Barbero” with the date “Jun 8 1959” and the approximate timing of the launching “9.30 a.m.” This 15) about the First Official Missile Mail, writes was done by post office staff, part of an established Bert van Eijck. After the useful technical branch office on the USS Barbero. The letters bore the Those details about the USS Barbero he gave us I can 1957 4c American flag postage stamp. addressed to foreign countries carried two such offer you more philatelic information and show stamps, covering surface mail postage costs. On the you some illustrations. reverse side is the Jacksonville Post Office cancellation with the approximate time of arrival “June 8 10.30 am The missile mail experiment was a joint venture between 1959 Florida” the Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Post Office Dept headed by Postmaster General Mr Arthur E. Such flown letters are expensive to buy and a jewel in Summerfield. Three thousand special envelopes were any exhibit. printed with a reproduction of a Navy missile, type Regulus with the text “First Official Missile Mail” and But this is NOT the case with the Barbero souvenir above that “The Postmaster General Washington”. All cover dated a month later on July 8, 1959, issued in the envelopes were addressed to The President, high the same quantity (3000) as the originals.

The government officials like senators and to the Post inscription reads “Point of Landing—First Official Missile Masters General of ninety nine other member nations of Mail 8 June 1959 US Naval Station, Mayport, Florida” U.P.U. Inside was a letter from Mr Summerfield entitled About 16,000 (!) collectors had applied for such a “The First Official Missile Mail” with the official seal of cover. the Post Office dept. It was explained therein what had happed to that letter and the other 2,999.

The imprint of the official Barbero cover was

More About Missile Mail

The special letters were loaded in two metal compartments and came aboard the guided missile USS Barbero (SSG-317). The shot was to occur during a regular training mission from Norfolk, Virginia to Florida.

About 350 kilometres off the coast of Florida, the Regulus missile was launched toward Airport Mayport.

reproduced on a memorial cover issued and posted at the Vienna International Airpost Exhibition Luposta on August 1959 in the Austrian capital. Of course neither of these items had been carried within the Regulus missile.

Above a specimen envelope as described in the text and below its reverse cancel

31

Also of interest : the Postal Administration of Paraguay issued a stamp and a block in 1976 honouring the Barbero Missile Mail. The Gs 20 stamp shows a Regulus missile in flight while the sheet shows the whole addressed cover and in miniature the complete letter inside from the U.S. Postmaster General, as mentioned above and as illustrated below.

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An Invitation to Our Readers to Donate to an Innovative International Project…..

exhibitions and various special events (like visits from astronauts – philatelists) will see the light of day as early as in 2011.

Kindest Sir or Madam, The municipality of Vitanje (Slovenia) is honoured to have had a hand in the life of the fa mous spa ce archite ct Herman Potocnik Noordung, (1892-1929) (pictured right) who had already found a surprising number of solutions to space travel and troubles of living in vacuum long before actual space flights took place.

His creations were used by the renowned novelist Arthur C. Clarke in his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was later also turned into a movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick.

In Noordung's honour we have created the Memorial Centre of Herman Potocnik Noordung. This year the cultural centre of European Vitanje Local space technology will also get going in Vitanje. This will be a place Private Post stamp where the European space heritage will be gathered and various events connected with the contemporary European space technologies will be organized.

Proposed Philatelic Collection We would like to bring the project onto a higher level, where we would have the collaboration of various countries in the world, including such with a history in space travel (like USA, Russia). One of the steps of this expansion process would also include a philatelic collection of stamps with themes of outer space (astronomy, astronautics and everything connected to outer space). We already have quite a decent collection, but we would like to expand on that.

Our goal is to have 6000 stamps before opening our exhibition. For this we would require the help of as many philatelists as possible.

From a professional point of view, we have an excellent team working with us. Long-time philatelist Tone Petek is the person who initiated this project, while Bojan Bracic, the secretary of FEPA, is one of our counsellors and is completely behind this project.

If you would be interested in such cooperation, I will get the wheels in motion and send you a verifying mail, with the stamp of the municipality of Vitanje and also of some higher organization within the Slovene political system.

The collection is already underway with the help of the Slovene Philatelic organisation (FZS) adds Rok in an email to your Editor in July. This organisation has been of immense help with technical expertise and connections.

It looks as if there might be an introductory exhibition next year sometime.

In the hope of a successful partnership we offer our sincere appreciation, Rok Podgrajsek, Obcina Vitanje Grajski trg 1 3205 Vitanje Slovenia Email address: rokpodgrajsek@gmail.com But see also website :http://www.vitanje.si/ (Editor’s

Note:

both

Wendy

Buckle,

editor

of

Themescene and our Chairman Margaret Morris commend this project to you. We will be sending Rok some recent copies of Orbit for the displays) Some illustrations from Noordung’s only published text “The Problem of Spa c e Tra v el : T he R o c ket Motor” (the original German title was “Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums - der RaketenMotor”) which saw the light of day in 1928.

All of these philatelists would become co-creators and partners of this collection, for which we hope will become the largest collection of its kind in the world.

The people donating the stamps would get a great deal of exposure at all these exhibitions and on the special website, which will be started shortly. If you give us enough support and we are able to raise enough stamps for a first-class collection, we hope the first 32

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Zazzle Space Stamps Dazzle !

I have noticed Zazzle Space Stamps appearing in Lollini brochures and on their web pages in recent months, writes your Editor, so I undertook to find out some facts about them and am grateful to The Astrophile Editor Jim Roth and the man who inspired him to create his own Zazzle designs Otto Bergman for the following info….

Three of Jim Roth’s designs.

See others on his website

Zazzle is one of half a dozen or more US companies who facilitate the printing of non-copyrighted photos and artwork on private postage stamps which count as postage within and outwith the USA. You can design your own Zazzle stamps—see their website— which you then purchase for your own use 20 to a page.

They are therefore a bit like British Smilers, except that the personal element of the stamp is not on a setenant label but actually incorporated within the stamp itself, as you can see from the examples on this page.

Jim Roth was annoyed that the Kennedy Space Center Post office would not cancel his Zazzle stamps as they consider them to be “meters” and although he has marked STS-122 he won’t be creating any others.

An Otto Bergman space creation on Zazzle.com/ottobergman

You can see (and buy) all Jim Roth’s Space Zazzles on his website m57covers.com—click on “stamps”

STS 128 stamps show astronauts Christer Fuglesang (far left) and left Frank De Winne ISS Commander Expedition 21

Delta 2 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral of WISE Deep InfraRed telescope

STS 129 issues depict mission patch and the crew led by Charles Hobaugh

These space Zazzles and others are available from the Lollini website or brochures: STS 128 in May 2010 section STS 129 in June 2010 WISE and Delta 2 launch in July 2010 STS 130 in August 2010 33

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More Spaceflight Books for Sale

Concluded on page 39 ????

34

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SPACE HABITATS Continuing his feature from our last issue, John Beenen begins by posing the question…

Why Should we Seek to Live in Space ?

(Part Two) by John Beenen Furthermore, cosmic radiation produces a radiation of 80 mSv (millisievert) well over the allowed maximum of 50 mSv and very much over the amount which is considered as safe for man, which is 3 mSv. Next, solar flares produce a sudden

Space.com gives ten main reasons why Artists impressions: above Interior increase of soft gamma and energy rich we should enter space for a prolonged Stanford Torus and below Interior radiation, so much that without the O’Neill Cylinder protection of an atmosphere half of our period:

1.

2.

3.

4.

To secure a future for humanity To build a new frontier To find new energy sources To build an industrial settlement on the Moon 5. Better quality images of the Universe 6. The SETI effort 7. Mining 8. Learning the history of our Universe 9. Environmental benefits

Meeting the challenge

population could die easily.

It is interesting that, even without shielding, most of this radiation can be absorbed in the projected spacecrafts’ structure and in the air. Smaller structures can be protected with a shield of co-rotating rocks.

The construction protected against lack of the air unshielded, so sun are indispensable.

further must be sunlight which by shield will fall in blinds and radiators

And, as a result of the artificial gravity there are some tiny movement Solar flares, Czechoslovakia, 1965, problems which we will face later.

Taking for granted that it is naturally WB 47 fascinating to investigate how mankind might be able to maintain its habitat outside earth, Finally the created ecosystem should be fully selfthere are several further reasons to investigate why supporting, and that is easier said than done, as mankind should settle themselves outside earth in the experiments with Biosphere-2 have showed. far future. And More reasons mean a overall better Biosphere-2 argument.

Biosphere-2 was a project built between 1987 and Primarily there is the question of overpopulation and 1991 providing in an area of about 2½ football fields secondly a solution for the energy problem. a closed biological system of different composition.

From 1991-1993 a crew of 8 persons stayed herein. A Next, we have to consider that climate circumstances second crew of 7 persons bridged a period of March are not under control anymore and earth eventually until September 1994. During the first period it becomes uninhabitable. appeared difficult to keep the atmosphere constant: in particular the carbon dioxide values changed rapidly— Also, when, for various reasons, we start to kill each the reason why many of the carried insects perished. other for some groups of people it may be an attractive Further, the oxygen level decreased slowly because pf proposition to depart this Earth in quite a different a leak. sense ! And, that is perhaps the most common thought, through activities in space more money can be Even during the first two-year phase large differences obtained. in opinion appeared and the yield was not large enough to deliver the calories necessary. Reserve stocks had to be broken into. Finally the second But there are disadvantages…. experiment had to be ended prematurely because of On the other hand a prolonged stay in space is not that mismanagement. safe. The construction must be protected against radiation and it can be hit by large and small debris However, it seems that a well-functioning stable ecosystem should not be underestimated physically which makes space a very unsafe place.

35not technically

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It further has to be speculated on that men would resist a regulated weather programme instead of the customary ever changing circumstances on Earth.

Also we must physically resist an eternal stay outside Earth. That is not always easy as some people will show some kind of sea sickness for ever. In any case rooms with a diameter of less than 100 meters and a speed of revolution over three per minute are insufficient. At specifications of over 500 m and at less than 1 revolution per minute fewer problems have to be expected.

How do materials?

we

get

raw

(Fantasy, Moon Mining, Yemen Mutawakelite, 1969, 134/3) And still there have to be enough raw materials to sustain the colony, but as a principle the search for raw materials is not the most difficult.

From the asteroid belt enough small rocks can be transported as a building material. Also mines can be put on the Moon. Bercause of the lower gravity there, transport is easier and some kind of firing mechanism has been calculated which launch packets of ore simply into space, where they can be manipulated.

Air can be produced from moonstone. Nitrogen, nearly without loss, can be recycled and eventually added to ammonia mined from comets. Large gardens and fields should start the normal photosynthesis and doing so finally a complete sustainable society might be built up.

Energy from the Sun is present in superfluous quantities.

What to do about gravity?

Most designs for a Space station start with a gravity of 1G. Some designers however think that a lower level of gravity is possible. But, in the meantime, experiments with astronauts have showed that our physiology changes rapidly influenced by decreased or absence of gravity. Thus, the calcium, potassium and sodium contents of our bone system decrease by about 10%.

That is not bad were we to stay in space forever, but very troublesome when occasionally we would return to Earth.

Also the quality of our muscles decreases, as the blood volume does. Providing effects comparable to aging.

Further, by lack of gravity, astronauts become a little taller with accompanying pain in the back. Hence, the staying with 1G gravity is not so bad.

of the centrifugal or centripetal force. Its magnitude has long been established thanks to the work of Dutchman Christiaan Huygens and fixed in the formula: F= F m v r

= = = =

m. v2 r

where:

the external force in N(ewton) mass in kg speed in m/sec radius in m

Hence, a spacecraft with a diameter of 15 meters has to carry out one revolution every 8 seconds to produce a sensation of 1G. And that is too quick for man. The effect of the centrifugal force is that should an astronaut drop an object, it does not fall straight down, but partly away from him/her. Weird !.

Coriolis force But in a rotating Space station another force is at work. That is the ‘Coriolis force’ named after the French Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis (1792-1843) who described this kind of force for the first time.

The most common manifestation is the second law of Buys Ballot, which says that air streams in the atmosphere, which according the first law of Boys Ballot as a principle run from high to low pressure, at the northern hemisphere are bent to the right and at the southern hemisphere to the left, because of the rotation of the Earth.

Therefore air streams around depressions show a spiral shape in opposite directions at the northern and southern hemisphere. In a space station this force can especially noticed when moving around through the spokes of the wheel.

(Diagram of Coriolis Force, http:// www.phy6.org/stargaze/ Srotfram.htm) Assume that an astronaut on a ladder climbs through a spoke to the axis. As he climbs along he circles around more slowly as he describes a smaller circle in the same time. What happens with the difference in speed that he had before? He will be pressed against the ladder and that is the Coriolis force. The force also acts in opposite direction when he descends from the ladder.

That has to be maintained by rotation of the construction. The larger the diameter of the construction Also the throwing up and catching of a ball will is, the slower it will turn to provide 1 G. That is a result become a huge achievement as the ball does not 36

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drop perpendicularly, but will shift a little into the direction of the orbit of the station and also achieves a higher speed.

This also has strange effects on the astronaut. As moves quickly in the rotation direction of the station his weight appears to increase to a noteworthy extent. Then as he moves against the speed of rotation his weight decreases apparently. Mathematically this effect is explainable but very complex.

Also the astronaut’s head and feet move in different speed to artificial gravity. This is plainly noticeable when somebody jumps up. Hence, avoid this practice!!

With these kind of effects adaptation to the changed circumstances in a space station will ask a lot of the crew members. I do hope they can stand it. But in any case: the larger the space ship, the lesser the problems.

Inflatable stations But there’s more. The inflatable station was considered many years ago. The first idea was possibly developed when on 12th August 1960 the Echo balloon with a diameter of 30 meters was launched.

(Echo I balloon, USA, 1960, WB 3) It is true you could not live in it, as the balloon was of too frail a construction, but the idea of an inflatable spacecraft was then alive. By 1958 groups within NASA had begun to think about inflatable stations. The Goettcommittee has been one of the first. On 25th/26th May 1959 a conference started about projects after Mercury. In particular the representative of Langley, Larry Loftin, was enthusiastic about his AMIS (Advanced Man in Space) project.

(Hexagonal structure, Manama, 1970, WB 113) One of his first projects was a rotating hexagonal inflatable construction with a diameter of 25 meters, a cylindrical core and three ‘spokes’. Acting as a ferry to and from the station the ‘ Dyna Soar’ Space plane could be used. The Dyna Soar project (at that time still under development). was cancelled by the American Minister of Defense, Robert McNamara.

Inflatable Habitat, NASA 1961, en.wikipedia.org).

37

A Langley Space Station team managed by Paul Hill and Emanuel ‘Manny’ Schnitzer developed the concept together with the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation (Langley’s self-inflating rotating hexagonal structure, http://history.nasa.gov/ SP-4308/) Its original diameter had already been reduced to 10 meters.

In the years after Langley built several experimental modules called: ‘Erectable Torus Manned Space Laboratory’, a 1:1 model; built by firms such as Goodyear. The torus was built from three layers of nylon tissue and in between a rubber-like plastic material, butyl elastomer. A large problem was the penetration by micrometeorites which, as was learnt from the results of the Echo balloon, finally damaged the whole structure.

Another problem was the great instability of the ring due to movements of the astronauts : the station started to wobble when they moved around. Finally the project was cancelled and at the end of the eighties the Langley Research Center started to design inflatable constructions for a base camp on the Moon.

(Artist impression Tra n s ha b i n fla ta ble module, http:// en.wikipedia.org) Due to the development of a new series of stronger plastic materials, such as Kevlar, these constru ctions received new interest. That lead to the development of Transhab (Transit Habitat), as a resource for crews coupled at the ISS (international Space Station). The construction is a cylinder in a diameter of 8.2 meters and several storeys high.

Its volume in inflatable state is 340 m3. The wall has a thickness of 30 (!) cm and consists of 12 layers, of which the outside layer is made from Kevlar. The layers beneath are made from Nextel a ceramic fibre.

Disagreements during development and the spiralling costs finally, in 2000, saw the end of NASA’s interest.

G e n e s i s thespacereview.com)

1

From 1999 the project was taken up by Bigelow

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Aerospace who improved the design and tested it with successful launchings of Genesis I on 12 July 2006 and Genesis II on 28 June 2007.

In their design it has once again more or less the shape of a balloon. With a thickness of 40 cm the wall is still very thick. The outside layer is still Kevlar but inside are some layers of Vectran, a textile fibre. Within the structure ants and scorpions were launched along with some objects which people who paid for the privilege of boosting into space.

In this way Bigelow hopes to build a Space Hotel, named Nautilus. To stimulate the development Bigelow offered a price of $50 million to everybody who succeeded in launching a crew of 5 persons to an altitude of 400 km before 2010. So little money lost here, so far !!

A second project which can be realized within the near future is a fixed residence on the Moon. As said, Langley occupies itself with the design of such a base, which partly should be build below the surface. Stamp designers have already realized the idea.

What does the future hold ?

Although we are a long way away from the kind of space station by which a large amount of earth inhabitants can leave the planet Earth forever, the first steps for doing so are in preparation. With the development of their Space Hotel Bigelow tries to make the step to space, albeit a temporary one.

Also Langley literally tries to set foot on the Moon and Fa ntasy, Moon finally they will succeed in doing so. However, The cost b a s e , Manaof such projects are literally astronomical and it is not ma,1970, WB 122 expected that in the coming decades much money can be allocated to such projects.

Fantasy bases ready for Mars, Of course, in some thousands of years (possibly only in Y.A.R, 1971, WB hundreds of years) this will become the case, but for the 289/2 and 6 time being in my opinion the true conquest of space will stay as science-fiction for at least a few hundred years.

Fantasy, Modular base, Y.A.R., 169, Hoorn, 2009 WB 233 John Beenen

NB. The stamps entitled ‘Space City’ with a value of 0 cnt do not exist but have been made by the author by means of frames and pictures present at the Internet.

38

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Cover Below bottom right : Future space, Dutch Antilles, 2000

Vaccari Auction Sells Remarkable Space Covers : April 2010

Literature references (for both parts of article) http://en.wikipedia.org Space habitat, Space Colonization, Orbital Colony, Space City, Space settlement, Space stations, L5 Society, Bernal Sphere, Stanford Torus, O’Neil Cylinder, Inflatable Space Habitat, Transhab, Biosphere 2, Generation Ship www.dse.nl/~hkl/ruimte.htm Wonen op groene eilanden in de Ruimte, (Dutch, Living on green Islands in Space) Henry Kluytmans www.orionsarm.com Mc.Kendree Cylinder, Bishops Ring www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement The Colonization of Space www.dyarstraights.com/msgundam/habitats.html Mobile Suit Gundam: High Frontier, Life in the Universal Century, Developing sound habitats www.artificial-gravity.com/Dissertation/1_2.htm From Tsiolkovsky to Sputnik (1878-1957) http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ ast26may_1m.htm Wheels in the Sky http://discaircraft.greyfalcon.us/ Hermann Noordung Wohnrad (Wheel for Habitation) http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/ full/1992lbsa.conf..249R Inflatable habitation for the lunar base, M.Roberts http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4308/ch9.htm ‘As inevitable as the Rising Sun’: From the inflatable Torus to the Rotating Hexagon www.space.com/news/businessmonday_040524.html Bigelow Aerospace to tackle inflatable Space Habitats http://science.howstuffswork.com/inflatablespacecraft2.htm How Inflatable Spacecraft Will Work www.bogan.ca/physics/coriolis.html Rotating Space Stations Dynamics. An Explanation of the Coriolis Force http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ RotatingSpaceStation/ Rotating Space Station www.dvandom.com/coliolis/spacestation.html Frame Effects and Space Stations, www.dvandom.com/coriolis/index.html A (hopefully) simple explanation of the Coriolis Force www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/ Hale, Edward Everett, von Pirquet Guido, Noordung Hermann, Space Station, www.phy6.org/stargaze/Srotfram.htm The Coriolis Force www.astronautix.com/craftfam/lunbases.htm Lunar bases www.astronautix.com/gallery/cspebase.htm Photo Gallery: Space base www.regererating-universe.org/ On_Moon_as_Space_Base.htm On Moon as Space Base www.spacefuture.com/habitat/living.shtml Space Habitat: Introduction, Living in Space www.spacepage.be/video?taak=bekijk&id=47 Living in space (Video) www.nutri.com/space/ The Case for Space colonization – Now!, Oscar Falconi www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/ (FoRK), Bigelow’s inflatable Genesis I satellite in orbit www.russianforces.org/ Russian strategic nuclear forces (Genesis II) www.bigelowaerospace.com/genesis/ Genesis I, Genesis II

Apollo 12 cover #55 of 87 flown to the moon on Apollo 15 having been left behind by the original crew, sold for €12,200. 1977 Salyut 6 /Soyuz 27 cover sold for €1,600 Thanks to Alan Tunnicliffe who came across the attached news item complete with stamp in the "e.NZ Magazine", the bi-monthly journal of the Institution of Professional Engineers NZ Inc., Vol 11 No 3 MayJune 2010

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ORBIT

Marshall Islands 2005

United Nations 2007

Shuttle 1981—2010 Stamps

Monaco and Ascension 2008

St Vincent Grenadines 1983 Ascension 1989

USA 1981 below USA 1995 and bottom USA 1998 (two values)

USA 1995

Bulgaria 1990 and above right W Germany 1975 and USA 2000

Guyana 2006

Bulgaria 1991, including stamp from souvenir sheet

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ASSS Membership Renewal 2010 Member’s Name & Address…………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………….

I wish to renew my membership of the ASSS for a further year and enclose the equivalent of £15 (UK)

€30 (Europe)

$US 45 (Rest of the World)

Please return this form with your remittance to Harvey Duncan by the end of July . Thank you !

Harvey Duncan Treasurer ASSS 16 Begg Avenue Falkirk Scotland FK1 2DL

PayPal

For details of how to Pay via Paypal please email Jeff Dugdale.

Email address on Page 2

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