UNITED STATES SPACE THEME POSTMARKS 1958 - 1979

This is a work on progress and needs a great deal more information to bring it up to date. I can be reached at rhcourtney33 at gmail.

The following listings are only of United States "space theme" postmarks, whether depicting real, or imaginary, events. One can approach this catalog as either a listing of postmarks relating only to the official U.S. space activities, which is the majority of the postmarks, or in a looser concept as dealing with space related themes which would include non-space program subjects. That would include some postmarks created before NASA and our various space programs. For a few questionable items that some collectors may, or may not, want to include in their collection, there is a section at the end of the last page with those postmarks illustrated. 

The postmarks are listed by year, then by month and date. The problem at this point is not knowing the exact duration of many of the shows for which many of these were created, and for the various dates many of the postmarks were used at such places as Downey, Edwards AFB, Houston, the Kennedy Space Center, Pasadena, and other sites associated with launches and programs. Some were used over a period of several years. The attempt is to list the first known dates of use. At times when an image of the first date is not available, an illustration of a later date will be shown, but hopefully, the date of first use is in the correct chronological order.

In the case of some of the shows, the same postmark was used for all days of the show, but in others a different postmark was created for each day of the show. There are instances where only one of the multiple postmarks had a space theme. Only that postmark will be listed here. 

If a cover is illustrated here with only one date shown for it's use, even though it may have been used for several dates, it is because I do not have the information at this point.

    

    

When the postmarks were created for a show, they were only used during the show, and never again. Years later some of the shows have extended the period that the postmark is available, permitting people to send for it. That is why many of these are illusive. There are instances where the postmark was the same for all days of the show, but a different cachet was prepared for each day, or there were a couple of different "official" cachets available for each day of the show. If one is collecting the "official covers", then one would want all the different cachets. If one is only interested in the postmark image, then one would most likely only want one example.

Often the public was made aware of the postmark prior to the show and was able to mail stamped, addressed envelopes to a cachet coordinator to obtain one or more copies. If the organization sponsoring the event had a printed envelope (a cachet) they were often sold and the collector could buy a copy that had the postmark on it, or just send his/her blank, stamped, addressed, envelope and have it applied.

An example of such an announcement that appeared in a 1986 philatelic periodical, reads as follows:

MARCH 1-2, Halley's Comet. Cachet commemorating the appearance of Halley's comet and depicting comet and Halley. 75 cents, $1.25 for two. Calumet Stamp Club, Box 1916, Highland, Ind. 46322. SSA or IRC required. Addressed gummed labels appreciated.

The addressed gummed labels would have been used to either put on the cover to be mailed to you, or on an envelope in which the cover was enclosed, and it would have saved those mailing the covers time.

THE CATALOG

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1958

1960

1963

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1966

1969

1971

1972

1973

1974


1975

   1976


1977

1978

1979

Every year on the anniversary of the moon landing, many collectors have used unused First Day Cover (cacheted) envelopes of the 1969 Moon Landing stamp to obtain the current postmarks.

Space Postmarks 1980 - 1989

Space Postmarks 1990 - 1999

Space Postmarks 2000 - 2009

Space Postmarks 2010 - Present

Slogan and Hand Cancellations

Space Meters

Introduction

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