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The Shape of Things to Come ?

Your new style Orbit which I mused over in the last Editorial is here much faster than anticipated, for an unfortunate reason, in a sense. Just after Christmas I felt a swelling in my chest and on going to the doctor I learned his opinion that I had an incisional hernia which needed reference to the local hospital. Within a week I had met a consultant who recommended repair and within a further week I had a date to go into hospital—Monday 11th February. I had most of Orbit for March done by then, but realised that post-op I would probably not have the strength to stand and print it and then collate it in the usual way in school which I would otherwise have been able to do for March and June issues, before we had a new printing challenge to address, as previously explained. Or not at least in time for issue in March. So I consulted Harvey Duncan, our Treasurer and he said we could give the professional printing a go this time and the result is in your hands. Please do let us know what you think, but note that if we continue this way—see letters on page 38—subs will have to go up in due course. Anyhow I hope you enjoy the variety of this issue. Best wishes

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE

STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 77 March 2008

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FROM ATOM TO NUCLEAR POWERED SPACECRAFT PART 2B: THE ATOMIC BOMB by John Beenen

Hiroshima (240. VJDay SCG 2005) Although until then only one experiment had been carried out with an atomic bomb – and not

the type which was to be dropped on H i r o s h i m a – President Truman d e c i d e d t o introduce this weapon to force Japan to surrender when it refused an ultimatum to surrender on July 28th 1945. On May 10th and 11th 1945 some targets were chosen. Kyoto was dropped as it had too many historical sites and temples. Also Yokohama was mentioned, but finally the choice was made for Hiroshima, a town at that time of 225.000 inhabitants. The town was chosen as it had passed the war relatively undamaged so that the effect of the bomb could be studied well. It is remarkable that a great many, so to say fairly intelligent scientists working at the A-bomb project primarily considered it as just a physical problem and only realized what they had developed after they saw the horrible effects of it. As already very distinct information existed that Japan would surrender, nowadays there is a body of opinion that the bomb was not really necessary, but served only some military and political goals. The aim was merely to put a pressure on the Soviets at the negotiations to withdraw from Europe. In this respect very little has changed until now.

(241. Tibbets and E n o l a G a y , Micronesia 2005, 242. Boeing B-29 Superfortress, USA 2005) At 2.00 o’clock in the morning of August 6th 1945 the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ‘Enola Gay’* with a crew of 12 men under

command of Colonel Paul Tibbets set off from Tinian Airfield* accompanied by two observation airplanes, the ‘Great Artiste’ with observation apparatus and the ‘Necessary Evil’ with

photographers. A half hour earlier an other Boeing B-29 departed to monitor the weather conditions. (The name ‘Enola Gay’ comes from the name of the mother of the pilot. The airport from where they started, Tinian, is an island in the Northern Marianes about 150 km northeast from Guam on a distance of about 1800 km from Tokyo).

The incoming B-29’s were observed by Japanese radar, but as it were only some planes the Japanese withdrew a initial air alert shortly after eight o’clock. At 8.15 the bomb was dropped from an altitude of 9.500 metres (26.000 ft) out of reach from Japanese fighters. This caused the immediate death of about 75,000 Japanese—numbers vary between 60,000 and 100,000—and the same amount of wounded were counted.

As all means of communication were destroyed or failed some time passed before the Japanese realized what had happened. Only after a Japanese pilot flew above the destroyed area a couple of hours later they realized the extend of the catastrophe. But the real truth they perceived only 16 hours after the disaster with a White House announcement. It was remarkable that some buildings especially shaped to survive an earthquake also survived the atomic bomb to a certain extent, even relatively close to the centre of the detonation. One of those buildings has been kept as a memorial site the: ‘Hiroshima Peace Memorial’ (243. Hiroshima Monument, Japan 2000). During the following days, months and years many persons died because of the effects of the radioactive fall-out by cancer, gangrene (necrosis), leukaemia and miscarriages. According to an official count of the municipality of Hiroshima a total of 237,062 persons died because of the direct and indirect effects of the bomb. (244. Little Boy, Sierra Leone 2005) The bomb itself, ‘Little Boy’ as it was called, contained 64,1 kg of uranium enriched to a maximum of 89%. The amount was placed in two parts less than the critical mass. At an altitude of 550 metres above the target they were shot into each other starting an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. The bomb had a weight of 4400 kg, a length of 3 meters and a diameter of 71 cm. After investigation of the results it finally appeared that only 1,4% of the uranium present had reacted. Still the power of the bomb was already equal to about 10 kT (about 63 TJ) comparable to 15 kT of TNT. These results, recalculated according Einstein’s formula E=Mc2, means that only 0,7 grams of mass was converted

into energy. The Enola Gay is preserved and as since 2003 exhibited at NASM’s (National Air and Space Museum) facility, Steven F.Utvar-Hazy Center near Dulles National Airport, some distance outside Washington D.C.

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Nagasaki (245. Charles W.Sweeney, 246. Bockscar logo) On August 9th 1945 a second Boe i n g B -29 S u p e r f o r t r e s s

‘Bockscar’ set off for the Japanese town Kokura. However, as the weather was too cloudy it was decided to pull out to the alternative target, the town of Nagasaki, a town with 240.000 inhabitants. The commander was Major Charles W.Sweeney. His crew of 13 men actually belonged to the ‘Great Artiste’, but as rebuilding this machine for the transport of the atomic bomb would ask too much time simply the crew was exchanged. (247. Fat Man, Sierra Leone 2005) The bomb on Nagasaki was not of the uranium type but contained plutonium. This ‘Fat Man’ weighed 4630 kg, had a length of 2,34 meters and had a diameter of 1,52 meter.

The detonation took place at an altitude of 469 meters (1540 ft) at 11:02. The force of the bomb was about 21 kT which is equivalent to an energy of 88 TJ (Terajoule = 88x1012 Joule). Because of the hilly aspect of the area the effect of the bomb was somewhat less than at Hiroshima. Still the immediate death of 40.000 persons was reckoned together with 20.000 wounded. Finally the amount of deaths would pass 100.000.

(248. Nagasaki Monument, Japan 2000) The ‘Bockscar’ was accompanied by an other B-29 also used already at the first bomb, the ‘Great Artiste’, flown by the actual commander of the Bockscar, Frederick C.Bock. This plane dropped a message for a Japanese nuclear scientist to warn the Japanese for the dangers of such weapons. The letter, however, was not found in time. By lack of fuel the

planes could not return to Tinian but were forced to make a stop at Okinawa. The plane has been kept and can be seen at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Dayton, Montgomery County, next to the Wright-Patterson Air force Base signed as ‘The aircraft that ended WWII’. (249. Surrender of Japan, Japan 2000, 250. USA 2005)

On August 14th 1945 Japan officially surrendered, but the

documents were not signed until September 2nd aboard the USS Missouri by the Japanese General Koiso Kuniaki and the Japanese Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, Shigemitsu, and the American General Mac Arthur. Already by September 9th the S-50 thermal diffusion plant at Oak Ridge was closed. In the same month also at the same place the electro-magnetic separation reactor Y-12 was shut down. During the 6 years of its development the whole project cost 2 milliard dollars. However, this was not to say that the whole American involvement with these bombs was over; on the contrary, within the light of the Cold War the arms race had just started. Two days after the bomb on Nagasaki the so-called ‘Smythe Report’ was published, a kind of historical review about the development of the atomic bomb. However, the report did not contain much information as most of it was militarily classified. The aim of the report was to get a kind of admission afterwards of the general public and also to show which material was free for publication and which not. In spite of this some politicians held the opinion that too much information was given.

The American Atomic Bomb after Nagasaki

After the effect of both bombs were clear to the scientists they became aware of the horrible effects of the bombs, which they had developed, and a number withdrew from further work on it. Therefore some time passed before the work could be continued. Also the motive for having the A-bomb was not so clear anymore as it became obvious that Japan would have surrendered also without such a bomb. As said, President Truman needed the bomb for his negotiations with Stalin after Potsdam (July 17th – August 20th 1945) to force him to withdraw his troops from Europe. A physical problem had become part of international politics as far the physicists did not know already. (251. 25y. Eniwetok, USA 16-11-1952, 252. Cover Bikini experiments USA 01-07-1946).

In short, the investigations continued with experiments at what is called the ‘Pacific Proving Grounds’, the isle of Bikini, part of the Marshall Islands, and the atoll called Eniwetok both of which were American protectorates.

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An other important test area was located in the USA, in Nevada, but also bombs have also been tested at Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi and New Mexico. (253. Cover Crossroads, USA 30-06-1946)

The first series of experiments after the war were carried out at June 30 1946 at the Pacific named, ‘Crossroads’. They consisted from the tests ‘Abel’ (June 30) and ‘Baker’ (July 24) both with a power of 21 kT. (254. ‘Baker’, Marshall Islands).

Two years later three tests named ‘Sandstone’ of 37, 49 and 18 kT were executed and in 1951 at the Nevada Test Site five ‘Ranger’-experiments with a total strength of 40 kT. Back in

the Pacific four ‘Greenhouse’-experiments followed, from which the third had a power of 225 kT. ‘Buster-Jungle’ (72 kT) in the same year carried out at the Nevada test site is known as it coincided with movements of troops and it appeared later that many of them were exposed to unacceptably high amounts of radiation. About these series of experiments strikingly little information could be found at the Internet.

(255/256. Atomic bomb, Marshall Islands). The last series of experiments before the hydrogen bomb (H-bomb, Ivy Mike) were eight tests named ‘Tumbler-Snapper’ in 1952 again at Nevada. Apart from Buster-Jungle also other tests were not without harmful effects. Well-known is the accident on March 1st 1954, where super-bomb ‘Bravo’ of the project ‘Castle’ with an explosive power of 15 MT TNT (1000 times more powerful than Hiroshima) exploded. The radioactive cloud came much higher than calculated and the radioactive fall-out came down on a Japanese ship, the ‘Happy Dragon’ by which the crew was heavily contaminated and via which one crew member even died. Before an alarm was set the contaminated fish was already sold at the Japanese market. (257. Skull, Marshall Islands) An other accident happened

dur ing the operat ion ‘Plumbbob’ carried out from May 28 until October 7 1957 at the Nevada test site. The operation consisted from six series of 29 explosions in total. Most experiments were tests on nuclear warheads for missiles and submarines. But also effects on civil and military structures were tested. Within these experiments about 3000 military personnel were exposed to such high doses of radiation that this afterwards led to a significant increase in cases of leukaemia among them. By the way, these experiments lead to a strange incident, by which a lid of a manhole was shot into space with such a force that it possibly became the first object in space. In 1958 under the name ‘Argus’ a strange clandestine experiment was carried out near South Africa, were a bomb was exploded at high altitude to observe what should have been its influence on the van Allen radiation belt. After 1961 the first subterranean test series were ‘Nougat’ carried out at the Nevada test site and at Carlsbad, New Mexico in an underground salt dome. According information from the Internet encyclopaedia ‘Wikipedia’ in the period 1945-1992 finally the US carried out

1054 nuclear tests from which 23 at the isle of Bikini and after signing of the ‘Partial Test Ban Treaty’ in 1963 by underground tests only.

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The American Hydrogen bomb (H-Bomb)

(258. Edward Teller) The development of the American fusion bomb, the H-bomb, started already in 1941 when the Japanese professor, Tokutaro Higawura, a physicist at the Kyoto University, proposed that a thermonuclear reaction around hydrogen nuclei could be triggered by an explosive nuclear reaction caused by the fission of uranium-235. Also Fermi introduced such an idea to Edward Teller (1908-2003) of Columbia University. From that moment Teller was obsessed by this subject in such a way that he became the greatest opponent of the American A-bomb project, Dr.Richard Oppenheimer, and, during the chase of real and supposed communists at the McCarthy period, forced him to step aside.

(259. John von Neumann, USA 2005) Among others, co-operators of his team were Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988), later exposed as a Soviet spy, and the br i l l i an t , o r ig ina l ly Hungarian, mathematician, John von Neumann (1903-

1957). Von Neumann was a somewhat strange figure, and in

his private life an absolute hedonist. But as a mathematician he also worked on economical theories and was an expert on game theories. He was strongly involved in military issues and was one of the most important scientists behind the Cold War and one of the founders of the term ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ (MAD), the idea that the continuous increasing armament should lead to the belief by the Soviet Union that they could not start a war as they were afraid for their own destruction. This idea also is called ‘Nuclear deterrence’. Finally he died young as a result of bone marrow cancer possibly because of exposition to radiation at nuclear experiments in the Pacific, Los Alamos and New Mexico. Within this team the idea for a fusion bomb further was developed under the name: ‘Alarm Clock’. The structure proposed were alternating layers of fissionable material and thermonuclear fuel (deuterium, tritium). This should lead to a quick and thorough permeation of the neutrons emitted at the fission into the surrounding layers, which should give a much larger energy output. In September 1947 lithium-6-deuteride was proposed as a nuclear fuel, by which much more tritium would be formed and the reaction would pass much quicker. Still the project did not show much progress until President Truman at January 31st 1950 increased the speed.

(260. Stanislaw Ulam) A break-through was reached with the idea of the original ly Pol ish mathematic ian, Stanislaw Ulam (1909-1984) by which a second core of fissionable material below the critical level was pressed together in such a way that it became supercritical, the ‘Teller-Ulam’ bomb was invented.

To reach this result the computer simulations made by the

mathematician John von Neumann with one of the first computers were indispensable. An H-bomb is a combination of a nuclear fission, a nuclear fusion and again a nuclear fission reaction. The first stage is an ordinary plutonium bomb and serves as a trigger heating up the core until a temperature of about 100 million degrees centigrade. The second stage is developed by the decomposition of the lithium deuteride, by which tritium and deuterium is released which fuses together under emission of a tremendous quantity of energy. This is the ‘H’ part or thermonuclear part of the bomb. The fusion reaction emits a very large flow of neutrons which can cause uranium-238 to fission, by which the power of the bomb will duplicate. The power of the bomb can be increased as requested by increasing the release of tritium and deuterium. As a result the power of the bomb is measured in MT (Megatons) and is a hundred to thousand times higher than an ‘ordinary’

n u c l e a r b o m b . (261. Ivy-Mike, Korea 2004) It was not until November 1st 1952 until the first H-bomb called ‘Ivy Mike’, exploded with the power of 10 MT (Megatons). Ivy Mike destroyed the atoll

of Elugelap, part of the Eniwetok string of atolls of the

Marshall Islands. The stalk of the mushroom had a diameter of 12,9 km, the fire ball a width of 4,8 km. The crater in which the islanda disappeared had a width of 1900 m and a depth of 50m. Remarkably the bomb was so heavy that it could not be transported and had to be build at the spot. Only at May 21st 1956 the H-bomb became operational in such a way that it could be dropped from an bomber airplane B-47 (‘Cherokee’).

The Soviet Nuclear Bomb

(262. Lavrenti Beria, drawing 1940 , 263. Igor Kurchatev, USSR 1963, M2728) In comparison to the Germans also the political staff of the Soviet Union was not i m m e d i a t e l y convinced of the possibility for the

development of a nuclear bomb. However, when information came through about the level of

the developments in the United States and England also the USSR started a modest nuclear programme. The head of this programme became the relatively unknown Igor Kurchatev (1903-1960), a pupil of Abram Ioffe. The political control stayed in the hands Lavrenti Beria, (264. Yakov Zel’dovich) The initial work was already carried out during the years of 1939-41 by Yakov

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Zel’dovich (1914-1987) and Yuli Khariton (1904-1996).

The development of the bomb was strongly stimulated by the reports of Soviet spies within the Manhattan project from which the originally German, nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988) became the most well-known. After his exposure he was sentenced to 14 years of detention and released after 9 years. After that time he moved to the GDR married there and became again a regarded nuclear physicist.

Other spies passing nuclear secrets were the couple Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed in the Sing-Sing Prison at June 19th 1953 and also some Brit ish nationals known as the ‘Cambridge Spy Ring’ of ‘The Cambridge Five’: Harold ‘Kim’ Philby (1912-1988), Guy Burgess (1911-1963) Donald MacLean (1913-1983) and Anthony Blunt (1907-1983) also known from a film made from their activities: ‘Spy Scandal of the Century’: 1977 and a TV-series

‘Cambridge Spies’. After, in 1951, they were detected by deciphering of a coded message by the Americans, Burgess and MacLean escaped to the Soviet Union. Philby was interrogated but never accused, but also deserted in 1963. The ringleader and highest in rank of the group, Anthony Blunt, only was exposed in 1963, but this was kept as a secret until 1979. It was supposed that many more were involved,

among others the name of Victor Rothschild (1910-1990) was mentioned, but this could never been verified. About the impact of their reports on the Soviet nuclear programme some doubt exists as the always suspicious Beria used their data mainly to control his scientists. Beria made several teams working at the same subject which only knew about it when they were confronted with the differences.

(265. Chelyabinsk, USSR 1986, M5641) After the explosion of both American bombs over Japan the Soviet programme was accelerated. Their first reactor went critical at

December 25th 1946 at the Kurchatov Institute at Moskou. This reactor was based upon and comparable to the reactor Harford 305 and suitable for the production of plutonium. Already in 1945 the construction of a larger industrial reactor was started more suitable for the larger amount of

plutonium needed in the future, such as the Chelyabinsk-40, later known as Chelyabinsk-65 or the Mayak production unit, the first of ten secret nuclear cities in the Soviet Union. The Soviet programme was concentrated in the town of Sarov, which afterwards disappeared from the map and only became known as Arzamas-16 a village nearby.

(266. Yuli Khariton, Russia 2004) Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union did it return to the map. The governor of the city, on the analogy of the American ‘Los Alamos’, also called ‘Los Arzamas’, became Yuli Khariton (1904-1996), a trusty

friend of Kurchatov. From 1926-28 Khariton had studied with

Ernest Rutherford. On explicit order of Beria the scientists were asked to build a true copy of ‘Fat Man’, the bomb on Nagasaki. They did and already at August 29th 1949 the first Soviet nuclear bomb was a fact. A bomb of 22 KT exploded in the test area Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. The Americans called the bomb ‘Joe 1’, the Soviets themselves called it ‘First Lightning’ or simply ‘RDS-1’. This code meant nothing but became subject to some funny variations such as: ‘Reaktivayi Dvigatel Stalinec’ (Stalin’s rocket engine) or ‘Russia does it alone’. The Americans, convinced of their technical superiority, were shocked that these primitive Soviets were able to construct such a bomb so quickly and thought they could have gained their knowledge only by espionage. That only was partly true. Also the Soviets had the possession of brilliant scientists. But this triggered very much the attention for everything which only smelled to Communism in the US and their espionage networks. This prompted the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957, 267) to accuse the Truman administration of negligence with respect to safety cautions and to be in collusion with Communism. It started the unbridled

chase espec ia l ly on so -cal led Communist sympathies, from which the director of the American Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, also by imputations made by Edward Teller, became one of the victims. Eventually it lasted four years until McCarthy fell by a personal affair, but the chase after Communists (read: terrorists) lasts until today. A second bomb, now with the already proposed improvements exploded at September 24th 1951 and had a power of 38 KT. In the meantime the Soviets constructed a bomb based upon the principle of nuclear fusion, normally called hydrogen bomb or H-bomb.

(268. Sakharov, Sweden 1991, M1699, 269. Ginzburg) Later known as a dissident, Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), Vitali Ginzburg (1916) and Viktor Davidenko were the driving forces.

The first design of Sakharov and Ginzburg was called ‘Slovka’ after a kind of stratified pastry. Ginzburg developed the idea to use lithium-6-deuteride (Li-6 D) as a trigger in stead of deuterium and tritium. Already at August 12th 1953 the first bomb was ready. It exploded with a power of 400 KT; the Americans gave it the name: ‘Joe 4’, but the Soviets simply called it ‘RDS-6s’. Actually, this

still was not a real H-bomb. The development of such a bomb is attributed to Davidenko who developed a bomb more or less equal to the Teller-Ulam concept in the United States. The Soviet answer to an American explosion of an

Kim Philby

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equal kind of bomb in March/April 1954 came already at

November 22nd 1955 when the ‘RDS-37’ exploded with a force of 1,6 MT. This experiment caused much damage at the ground and killed three men.

(270. Tsar Bomba) The b iggest bomb ever exploded became the ‘Tsar Bomba’ which exploded at October 30th 1961 with a power of 58 MT (2500 times larger than the bomb on Hiroshima). This power

was more than all explosives together used in WW II and as such became the largest bomb ever exploded. The heat developed was that much that it caused third-degree burns even at 100 km distance. Ultimately, the force of such a bomb was responsible for the change of opinion of politicians that a nuclear war never could be won and lead directly to the first Moratorium of 1958-1961, by which it was agreed to carry out subterranean experiments only. The first real industrial bomb, ‘Chagan’ detonated at January 15th 1965 with a power of 140 KT. The experiment purposely put up a barrier in a dry river bed of the river Chagan, and a crater with a diameter of 400 m and a depth of 100 m behind which a lake was formed.

The experiment was criticized strongly as it thwarted the moratorium on experiments in the atmosphere, but the Soviets pretended that it had been a subterranean test. At the end, in the period of 1949-1989 until the ending of all nuclear tests, the Soviets carried out 456 explosions, from which 340 subterranean and 116 in the atmosphere. An other source (the Internet Encyclopaedia Wikipedia) mentions 715 and 969 explosions. The test site at Semipalatinsk officially was closed at August 29th 1991 and re-baptized as Kurchatov Town. However, inside the area still some nuclear reactors are active together with

two cyclotron labs and two particle accelerators for scientific experiments.

The Neutron Bomb After the development of the fusion bomb the investigations were pointed to a bomb which would cause much less damage and less radioactivity to make it possible that the attacked area could be entered quickly, the so-called ‘clean’ bomb.

(271. Sam Cohen) During such investigations Samuel Cohen (1921) discovered that a small fusion bomb with a much thinner shell emitted much less radioactivity but much more neutrons with a large penetrating effect. The neutron emission increased quadratic with a decreasing wall-thickness, the ‘neutron bomb’, also called: ‘Warhead W-70’ was a fact.

That opened possibilities for an application against armoured ground forces. A disadvantage is that the action of the radiation is only very effective when it is rather large and that

means that larger bombs are preferred. Neutron bombs

influence largely electronic circuits, hence, communication within the area attacked is not possible. The action of neutron radiation further is largely reduced by the presence of water, thus, in moist environments the effect is limited. That such a bomb kills only men and leave buildings untouched is a nonsense as that effect only takes place when such a bomb explodes at great altitudes. Fortunately the bomb still is not used in practice but only meant as a deterrent against the enormous preponderance of the Soviet tanks at the borders of Europe. Also the so-called ‘bunker busters’, bombs for targets at great depths, could be provided with a nuclear charge. For the time being they rest on their shelves as their fall-out is rather unpredictable and may cause a danger for the own troupes and inhabitants.

Nuclear Proliferation As the Americans and the Soviets had their bombs, some countries could not stay behind to establish their power with the possession of such bombs also.

(272. Operation Hurricane) At October 3rd 1952 within the ‘Operation Hurricane’ the United Kingdom carried out its first A-bomb

explosion. It was a bomb based upon plutonium with a power of 25 KT showing much similarity to ‘Fat Man’. The bomb exploded

just outside Trimouille Island, part of the Monte Bello Islands, West of Australia. It was placed in a ship 2,7 meters below the water-line. After a series of subsequent A-bomb experiments the British exploded their first H-bomb at May 15th 1957 at the Christmas Atoll (now Kiritimati) in the middle of the Pacific and Maralinga in South-Australia. The result of 300 KT was

very disappointing, but next experiments reached a power of 3 MT. The Maralinga area was widely polluted with radiation and British troops were deliberately exposed to such radiation. Also the area was free for entrance of local aborigines, as al warning signs were in English which the aborigines could not read. After a series of measurements the area today has an acceptable level of radiation. The British carried out 45 tests in total from which 21 in Australia and some of them in the US; 24 were subterranean.

(273 . Explosion at Mururoa) Naturally the French could not stay behind. Their first A-bomb, ‘Jerboise Bleu ’ was exploded at February 13th 1960 at their test site at the Sahara deser t , Reggane, Algeria. It had a force of 60 KT. Their H-

bomb, ‘Canopus’ followed at August 24th 1968 at their new test sites in the Pacific, the isles of Mururoa and Fangataufa and released a power of 2,6 MT.

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Finally 41 tests were carried out in the atmosphere, which

caused a rather high amount of radioactive fall-out, especially jodium-134 and xenon-133. The inhabitants of the surrounding isles were only partly informed about the dangers of these substances. Under heavy international pressure since 1974 those experiments went underground but France continued their tests until 1996, much longer than the other countries. This forced the international environmental pressure group ‘Greenpeace’ in the eighties to several actions within the test area around Mururoa and there were a number of violent confrontations with the French Marines.

(274. Ship Greenpeace, Romania 1997) At July 10th 1985 this event lead to sink the flagship ‘Rainbow Warrior’ in the harbour of Auckland, New-Zealand by two members of the French secret service by which the Portuguese photographer of Greenpeace, Fernando Pereira, died. At the beginning the French denied every involvement, but finally they had to admit it and paid the government of New-Zealand 7 million dollars for

compensation, but still frustrated the conviction of the agents. Finally the French in 1998 ratified the international treaty on

the elimination of nuclear tests. Over the years they carried out 193 nuclear tests at and around the Polynesian isles, from which 45 in the atmosphere. This lead to a destruction of the isle of Mururoa to such an extent that at some future point it will disappear completely into the sea. At October 16th 1964 China tested its first A-bomb with a power of 22 KT, the ‘596’. At June 17th 1967 their H-bomb followed with a power of 3,3 MT. Until 1996 China carried out 45 tests at their Lop Nur test site at Malan, Xinjiang. At May 18th 1974 India entered as a A-bomb possessing country with an explosion at Pokhran at the Rajastan Desert. It was called: ‘Smiling Buddha’ and had a power of 12 kT. In

1998 they launched some missiles with a nuclear warhead, the ‘Shakti I and II’ immediately followed by an answer of their enemy, Pakistan, a bomb of 9 KT at May 28th 1998 in the Chagai Hills.

(275. Abdul Quadeer Khan) The father of the Pakistan nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan (1935) got his knowledge from the Dutch company Urenco where he had worked. Thereafter he started an enrichment factory for uranium in Pakistan which was ready in 1986. For the theft of information he was punished by absence in 1988 but never sentenced.

In 2005 he was unilaterally acquitted by the President of Pakistan. He continued working together at the proliferation of nuclear knowledge with Libya, North-Korea and Iran. Still there exist a number of other countries which were to expect to possess a nuclear bomb or at least have a programme for development. Even Japan is thought to have had a development programme for a nuclear bomb at the moment it was dropped at Hiroshima.

(276. Vela satellite) At September

22nd 1979 Israel and South-Africa may have carried out an atomic experiment in the Indian Ocean within the framework of the ‘Operation Phoenix’ . The event is known as the ‘Vela incident’ by which the American satellite ‘Vela 6911’ had observed a clear flash at

that specific day, possibly originating from a nuclear explosion. Some sources confirm this conclusion but in 1980 it officially was stated that Vela did not have observed a nuclear explosion, but much of this information is still kept as a secret. Based upon the information filtered through since it may freely be concluded that it really had been a nuclear explosion. In any case it is known that at the Dimona Nuclear Factory at the Negev Desert in Israel raw materials for the production of nuclear weapons (plutonium) can be manufactured. In this respect it is not positive that Israel together with India and Pakistan had not signed the international treaty against the proliferation of nuclear arms (NPT of 5 March 5th 1970). Further a controversial explosion took place at September 9th 2004 in North-Korea, which, however, was declared to be a forest-fire. At October 9th 2006 North-Korea officially reported its first subterranean nuclear test. The power of

550 tons only makes it obvious that the experiment was at least only partly successful. In spite of this result the United States and Japan consider the test as a serious provocation. Although the bomb is still small the danger is that it could be sold to all kinds of terrorists and less scrupulous countries. How far other countries, especially those from the former sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, possess nuclear bombs or may produce them is unknown, but the Ukraine could possess some by an administrative failure at the time of the transfer of the bombs to Russia. Finally, even at this moment, the nuclear programme of Iran is much in discussion. Iran claims to use their nuclear

knowledge just for energy production, but most of the outside world is afraid that they are using it also to develop a nuclear bomb as a counterweight to the bomb Israel possesses. However, the present information shows that Iran can enrich uranium to the 2-3% needed for energy applications, but is by no means able to increase this to the 90% necessary for a bomb. Its progress is closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), founded in 1957 with its siege in Vienna. Their aim is to stimulate the use of nuclear energy for peaceful applications but to prevent the proliferation of nuclear arms.

This closes the part of the development of nuclear bombs. In the next part we will deal with nuclear warheads and missiles.

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 25 By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile in Jan/Feb 2007

Ariel Satellites This is the twenty-fifth in a series of articles about un-manned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the British Ariel-series satellites. Six Ariel satellites were successfully launched, starting with Ariel-1 on 26 April 1962, and ending with Ariel-6 on 2 June 1979. There were no launch failures of Ariel satellites. The Ariel series is also called the UK series of satellites due to the British role in their development. The Ariels were physics and astrophysics satellites, with experiments to study the ionosphere, galactic radio noise, X-rays, and cosmic rays. The satellites had cylindrical bodies with different cones or caps on one end, and were spin stabilized along the cylinder axis. On the other end of the body, Ariel-1 and 2 had various arms and paddles: in this respect they were a bit like some of the early Explorer-series satellites. Three of the later-design Ariels (Ariel-3, 4, and 6) had four large “arms” attached diagonally to the spacecraft body. These arms looked somewhat like snowshoes with tubular frames and in fact contained solar panels that looked a bit like webbing. Antennas and instruments were sometimes attached to these arms. For Ariel-6 the arms were perpendicular to the spacecraft body, and the cap on top was hemispherical rather than conical. Ariel-5 was unlike the other Ariels, being a large cylinder about 1 m in diameter and length, with no significant attachments. The spacecraft looked much like Explorer-54 and 55, and was indeed uncharacteristic of the rest of the Ariel series. Most of the postal items for Ariel show Ariel-1 or 2, with only a few items showing Ariel-3 or 4. Some of the images show a great deal of detail of the spacecraft. No postal items are known to show Ariel-5, or 6. A checklist of postal items showing Ariel-series satellites (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/Ariel.htm) is available on the Website developed by the authors for the un-manned satellites featured in this series of articles (http://

w w w . c i r a . c o l o s t a t e . e d u / r a m m / h i l l g e r /satellites.htm). E-mail correspondence is welcome. D o n H i l l g e r c a n b e r e a c h e d a t hillger@cira.colostate.edu and Garry Toth at

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*Scott catalog number, unless

prefixed with Mi or BL for Michel;

"i" prefix denotes imperforate

version.

**SS# = souvenir sheet, MS# =

miniature sheet, where # = number

of stamps in sheet, and the

numbers in parentheses are the

catalog numbers of the stamps in

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How Hungary Has Celebrated Soviet and Other Spaceflight Achievement : Part Two

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14

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15

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Commemorating Apollo 11 and the first men on the moon.

From Brian G Vincent, New Zealand The cover illustrated here was produced in New

Zealand (publisher unknown) to commemorate man’s first landing on the moon in 1969 – one of many

items produced worldwide to commemorate this

historic achievement. What is of interest in particular are the times/dates shown on the cover which are all

given in New Zealand Time, which is 12 hours ahead of

Universal Time. This results in the moon landing being

stated as occurring on 21 July whereas world-wide texts would give the date as 20 July at 8.18pm.

Similarly the splash-down is shown as 25 July versus 24

July elsewhere. The actual date on which Neil Armstrong first left his footprint on the moon’s surface

is correctly given as 21 July, but at 2.56pm as against

2.56am elsewhere.

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The following items are for sale. Please apply to Stan for details of

prices, identifying the material you want by number. Stan gets Orbit so will know what you are referring to and will also send you colour scans of everything including reverse cancels on request.

1. Commem cover dedicated to Polish Navy Battle Ship Copernicus (ORP Kopernik ). Total of 5000 produced marking as per comm.cancel-Gdynia 6– 20.02.1972– 1st Anniv. of Banner Raising

on ORP Copernicus. Conclusion of launch as on ring Post-Office

canc.-Gdańsk 2- 20.02.1972,ring Post-Office. Receipt cancel on reverse-Gdańsk 2-26.02.1972 ( mail supplied to addressee by Polish

Post ). Violet cancel.-The Battle Ship Copernicus Post with related thematic stamp.

2. Four commem entires (two only shown right) relating to the Balloon Flight on the 50th anniv of the First Day of issue of a stamp

relating to MTP (World Fair Poznań ). 10.000 covers produced with red copy of Polish Semi-Postal Air-Mail stamp of 1921.

4 covers numbered:16181,16173,005678,005681. Launch of Balloon as per comm.canc.:Poznań 9-09.10.1971-XV

Years of The Day of Postage-Stamp in Poland-Copernicus,Solar

System. Landing as on ring Post-cancel-Witkowo -09.10.1971. Violet canc.-Board Cancel–Transported by Balloon “Stomil-SP-BZF”-

Poznań-9.X.1971. Pair of the Balloon Post stamps ( Balloon Post Stamp and Label ) in different compositions.

On the reverse of covers are Post-Office receipt ring cancels from

Poznań 2/

3. Commem. cover of the Scout Post Opole with a copy of Polish

Copernicus stamp of 1953 dedicated to Celebrations of 500th Anniv. of Copernicus Birth-Scouting to Nicolaus Copernicus. Post-Office

ring canc.-Opole 1-19.02.1973. Topical stamp. Violet canc.-PH

(Scout Post ) of Opole -500th Anniv. of Nicolaus Copernicus Birth, 1473-1973.

4. Inaugural Flight over Atlantic of Plane Ił-62 “Nicolaus Copernicus” flying from Warsaw to Toronto, leaving Warsaw 1-4.05.1972-PLL

“LOT” (Polish Air-Lines “Flight”) Warsaw-Toronto-Warsaw Topical stamp with 3.000 produced. On reverse are Toronto Air-

Port canc. and the Return cancel Warsaw 3.

5. Inaugural Charter Flight of Plane PLL “LOT” Ił-62 “Nicolaus Coperncius”–Warsaw-Boston leaving UPT (Post-Office)Warsaw 19-

Central Port “LOT”.

Topical stamp. On reverse is red cancel/ -Mail transported from Warsaw-Boston-Warsaw and black ring receipt cancel Warsaw 3-

29.07.1972, A Pair of covers with RED and BLUE cancels of Captain of Polish

Plane Ił-62.

Polish Copernicus Postmarks From Stanislaw Wekka – Bydgoszcz—Poland

stanstamps2@poczta.onet.pl

Continued on page 25

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Flight STS-72 Commander Brian Duffy Pilot Brent Jett MS Leroy Chiao MS Winston Scott MS Daniel Barry MS Koichi Wakata KSC Launch Date 11,1.1996 KSC Landing 20.1.1996 Purpose / Retrieval of two flyers Main Payload EDFT-03

Shuttle Story : 1996—STS-72, -75, -76, -77, -78, -79, & -80

The flight came to an end on Day Ten landing at

2.42 am after a mission lasting 8 days and 22

minutes.

The mission patch shown on the cover below depicts Endeavour with its major payloads: the Japanese SFU satellite (whose distinctive shape is reflected in the inner octagonal border of the patch) is shown in free-flying configuration. The OAST-flyer is also shown just after release from the RMS. The stars on the globe represent the crew members’ hometown in the USA and Japan and the two EVAs to be made are represented by the spacewalking astronaut’s helmet.

The newest shuttle Endeavour began its tenth mission on

11th January 1996 its main task being to retrieve the

Japanese Space Flyer Unit, deploy and retrieve the OAST-Flyer satellite, conduct scientific investigations in space and

evaluate Space Station assembly methods. It entered an orbit higher than usual in order to rendezvous with the SFU.

Once in orbit the shuttle was trailing the Japanese SFU by

6,000 miles but closing at a rate of 762 nautical miles per

orbit. On Day Two the shuttle had to manouevre away from an inactive American satellite the USAF MIST1 which

had been launched in 1994, eventually passing it five miles away. On Day Three Japanese astronaut Wakata used the

RMS to grapple with the satellite and bring it into the

payload bay before the shuttle decreased orbit for the next part of its mission. On Day Four MS Scott again used the

RMS arm to deploy the OAST satellite. During its operational period the two craft flew 90 nautical miles

apart: this was the sixth flight of a shuttle-deployed Spartan satellite, which was retrieved on Day Six again by Wakata.

On Day Five MSs Chiao and Barry performed EVA lasting just over six hours in order to test some proposed Space

Station Alpha operations, evaluating various tools and materials for possible use. On Day Seven astronauts Barry

and Scott changed places as Scott and Chiao spacewalked

for almost seven hours with Barry as coordinator. During the later stages of the spacewalk Scott positioned himself in

the coldest possible place with the payload bay facing away from the Sun and the Earth and towards deep space in

order to test his spacesuit’s ability to perform active work and withstand low temperatures, which dropped to 104°

degress F below zero.

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Flight STS-75 Commander Andrew Allen Pilot Scott Horowitz MS Jeffrey Hoffman MS Maurizio Cheli MS Claude Nicollier MS Franklin Chang-Diaz PS Umberto Guidoni KSC Launch Date 22.2.1996 KSC Landing 9.3.1996 Purpose / TSS-1 re-flight Main Payload USMP-3

The primary objective of STS-75 was to carry the Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TSS-1R) into orbit and to deploy it spaceward on a conducting tether. The mission also flew the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3) designed to investigate materials science and condensed matter physics. The TSS-1R mission was a reflight of TSS-1 which was flown onboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-46 in July/August of 1992. The Tether Satellite System circled the Earth at an altitude of 296 kilometres, placing the tether system within the rarefied electrically charged layer of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere. STS-75 mission scientists hoped to deploy the tether to a distance of 20.7 km (12.9 mi) but when 19 kilometres of the tether had been deployed the tether broke. It remained in orbit for a number of weeks and was easily visible from the ground, appearing something like a small but surprisingly bright fluorescent light travelling through the sky. The specific TSS1-R mission objectives were: characterize the current-voltage response of the TSS-orbiter system, characterize the satellites high-voltage sheath structure and current collection process, demonstrate electric power generation, verify tether control laws and basic tether dynamics, demonstrate the effect of neutral gas on the plasma sheath and current collection, characterize the TSS radio frequency and plasma wave emissions and characterize the TSS dynamic-electrodynamic coupling. TSS-1R Science Investigations included: TSS Deployer Core

Equipment and Satellite Core Equipment (DCORE/SCORE), Research on Orbital Plasma Electrodynamics (ROPE), Research on Electrodynamic Tether Effects (RETE), Magnetic Field Experiment for TSS Missions (TEMAG), Shuttle Electrodynamic Tether System (SETS), Shuttle Potential and Return Electron Experiment (SPREE), Tether Optical Phenomena Experiment (TOP), Investigation of Electromagnetic Emissions by the Electrodynamic Tether (EMET), Observations at the Earth's Surface of Electromagnetic Emissions by TSS (OESSE), Investigation and Measurement of Dynamic Noise in the TSS (IMDN), Theoretical

and Experimental Investigation of TSS Dynamics (TEID) and the Theory and Modelling in Support of Tethered Satellite Applications (TMST). The USMP-3 payload consisted of four major experiments mounted on two Mission Peculiar Experiment Support Structures (MPESS) and three Shuttle Mid-deck experiments. The experiments were: Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF), Material pour l'Etude des Phenomenes Interessant la

Solidification sur Terre et en Orbite (MEPHISTO), Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), Critical Fluid Light Scattering Experiment (ZENO) and Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE). (Sourrce : Wikipedia) The mission patch on the cover depicts the tethered satellite and the shuttle passing through the Earth’s magnetic field.

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Flight STS-76 Commander Kevin Chilton Pilot Richard Searfoss MS Ronald Sega MS Michael Clifford MS Linda Godwin MS Shannon Lucid KSC Launch Date 22.3.1996 EAFB Landing 31.3.1996 Purpose / Transfer of Lucid to MIR Main Payload SPACEHAB

This was the third linkup between a U.S. Space Shuttle and

Russian Space Station Mir highlighted by transfer of veteran astronaut Shannon Lucid to Mir to become first American woman to live on station. Her approximately four-and-a-half month stay also eclipsed long-duration U.S. spaceflight record set by first American to live on Mir, Norm Thagard. Lucid was succeeded by astronaut John Blaha during STS-79 in August, giving her distinction of membership in four different flight crews -- two U.S. and two Russian -- and her stay on Mir kicked off continuous U.S. presence in space for next two years. Payload bay configuration included Orbiter Docking System in forward area and SPACEHAB single module toward the aft. STS-76 marked first flight of SPACEHAB pressurized module to support Shuttle-Mir dockings; single module primarily served as stowage area for large supply of equipment slated for transfer to space station, but also carried European Space Agency’s Biorack experiment rack for on-orbit research. Atlantis hooked up with Mir on flight day three, following same R-bar approach employed on STS-74. Actual connection between Orbiter Docking System and Docking Module attached to Kristall module docking port occurred at 9:34 p.m. EST, March 24. Hatches opened a little less than two hours later. Awaiting Atlantis’ arrival were Mir 21 Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Yuri Usachev, who were launched to Mir on Feb. 21. In July, they will be joined by Mir 22 Commander Gennady Manakov, Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov and French Space Agency cosmonaut researcher Claudie Andre-Deshays. After two

-week stay Andre-Deshays returned to Earth with Onufrienko and Usachev while Manakov and Vinogradov remained on board with Lucid. During five days of docked operations, about 1,500 pounds of water and two tons of scientific equipment, logistical material and re-supply items transferred to Mir; experiment samples and miscellaneous equipment brought over to orbiter. In Biorack, 11 separate scientific investigations were conducted. Study topics included effect of microgravity and cosmic radiation on plants, tissues, cells, bacteria and insects and effects of microgravity on bone loss. Also transferred to station were Mir Glovebox Stowage (MGBX) equipment to replenish glovebox already on

station; Queen’s University Experiment in Liquid Diffusion (QUELD) flown in orbiter middeck locker; and High Temperature Liquid Phase Sintering (LPS) experiment. On flight day six, Godwin and Clifford conducted the first U.S. extravehicular activity (EVA) around two mated spacecraft. During six-hour, two-minute, 28-second EVA, they attached four Mir Environmental Effects Payload (MEEP) experiments to station’s Docking Module. Experiments designed to characterize environment around Mir over an 18-month period. Two spacewalkers wore Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) propulsive devices first flight-tested during STS-64. Other payloads: Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX); KidSat, a project that gives middle school students opportunity to participate in space exploration; and Trapped Ions in Space (TRIS), a Naval Research Laboratory experiment flown in Get Away Special canister in cargo bay.

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Flight STS-77 Commander John Casper Pilot Curtis Brown MS Andrew Thomas MS Daniel Bursch MS Maraio Runco MS Marc Garneau KSC Launch Date 19.5.1996 KSC Landing 29.5.1996 Purpose / SPACEHAB Main Payload Spartan 207 retrieval

demonstrate the technology of the principle of aerodynamic stabilization in the upper atmosphere. Cameras on the shuttle recorded the PAMS satellite as it was deployed and tracked its movements. Secondary experiments on the flight included the Brilliant Eyes Ten Kelvin Sorption Cryocooler Experiment (BETSCE), the Aquatic Research Facility (ARF) and the Biological Research In a Canister (BRIC) experiment. Also onboard was the Plant-Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (P-GBA) designed by BioServe Space Technologies. Several plant species were flown in this double middeck locker configured plant growth chamber. Investigations on plant growth in micro-gravity as well as research on the feasibility of agriculture in space were successfully carried out.

(Source : Wikipedia) The two red portions of the NASA logo on the left of the mission patch on the cover symbolize the flight's numerical designation (77) in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence.

NASA's flight of shuttle Endeavour was devoted to opening the commercial space frontier. During the flight the crew performed microgravity research aboard the commercially owned and operated SPACEHAB module. The mission also deployed and retrieved the Spartan-207/IAE (Inflatable Antenna Experiment) satellite and rendezvoused with a test satellite. A suite of four technology experiments known as the Technology Experiments for Advancing Missions in Space (TEAMS) also flew in the Shuttle's payload bay. The SPACEHAB single module carried nearly 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of experiments and support equipment for 12 commercial space product development payloads in the areas of biotechnology, electronic materials, polymers and agriculture as well as several experiments for other NASA payload organizations. One of these, the Commercial Float Zone Facility (CFZF), which was developed through international

collaboration between the U.S., Canada and Germany, heated various samples of electronic and semiconductor material through the float-zone technique. Another facility on SPACEHAB was the Space Experiment Facility (SEF) which grew crystals by vapour diffusion. The Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC) Spartan-207 satellite was used to deploy and test the Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) which laid the groundwork for future technology development in inflatable space structures. It tested the performance of a large inflatable antenna during a ninety-minute mission. The antenna structure was then jettisoned and the SPARTAN-207 spacecraft recovered at mission end. Inside Endeavour's cargo bay the four TEAMS experiments operated throughout the mission. They included the Global Positioning System (GPS) Attitude and Navigation Experiment (GANE) to determine to what accuracy the GPS system can supply attitude information to a space vehicle; the Vented Tank Re-supply Experiment (VTRE) to test improved methods for in-space refuelling; the Liquid Metal Thermal Experiment (LMTE) to evaluate the performance of liquid metal heat pipes in microgravity conditions, and the Passive Aerodynamically Stabilized Magnetically Damped Satellite (PAMS) payload to

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Flight STS-78 Commander Tom Hendricks Pilot Kevin Kregel Ft Engineer Susan Helms MS Richard Linnehan MS Charles Brady MS Jean-Jacques Favier MS Ronald Thirsk KSC Launch Date 20.6.1996 KSC Landing 7.7.1996 Purpose / LMS within Spacelab Main Payload

This was the fifth dedicated Life and Microgravity Spacelab

mission for the Space Shuttle programme, flown partly in preparation for the International Space Station project.

Columbia lifted off successfully from Kennedy Space Center’s

launch pad 39-B on the 20 June 1996.

During the 16-day, 21-hour mission, the crew assisted in the preparations for the International Space Station by studying

the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body in readiness for ISS Expeditions, and also carried out

experiments similar to those now being carried out on the orbital station.

Following launch, the orbiter climbed to an altitude of 173 miles (278 km) with an orbital inclination of 39° to the

Earth's equator to allow the seven-member flight crew to maintain the same sleep rhythms they were accustomed to

on Earth and to reduce vibrations and directional forces that could have affected on-board microgravity experiments.

Once in orbit, the crew entered the 40 foot (13 m) long

pressurised Spacelab module to commence over 40 science

experiments to take place during the mission. Not only did these experiments make use of the module’s laboratory, but

also employed lockers in the middeck section of the orbiter herself. Thirteen of the experiments were dedicated to

studying the effects of microgravity on the human body, whilst another six studied the behaviour of fluids and metals

in the almost weightless environment and the production of metallic alloys and protein crystals. The crew also carried out

the first ever comprehensive study of sleep patterns in

microgravity, research into bone & muscle loss in space, and in-flight fixes to problem hardware on the Bubble, Drop and

Particle Unit (BDPU), designed to study fluid physics.

The mission also featured a test into the use of a procedure that was later used during the second Hubble Space

Telescope servicing mission to raise the telescope’s altitude without damaging the satellite’s solar arrays. During the test,

Columbia’s vernier Reaction Control System jets were

gently pulsed to boost the orbiter’s altitude without jarring any of the mission payloads. The test was

entirely successful, and was later employed by

Discovery during STS-82, and is also currently used to boost the orbit of the ISS during visits by Shuttles.

The mission encountered no significant in-flight

problems, was the 78th Space Shuttle mission, and the

20th mission for Columbia. (Source : Wikipedia)

The mission patch on the cover was influenced by Pacific Northwest Pacific American art with the eagle incorporated into the wings of the shuttle. The pulsating sun displays three crystals representing the craft’s three microgravity processing facilities. The constellation Delphinius recalls the Dolphin, friend of sea explorers.

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Flight STS-79 Commander William Readdy Pilot Terence Wilcutt MS Jay Apt MS Tom Akers MS Carl Walz MS John Blaha KSC Launch Date 16.9.1996 EAFB Landing 26.9 1996 Purpose / SPACEHAB Main Payload Delivery of Blaha to MIR

STS-79 was the first shuttle mission to the fully completed Mir

space station in its final configuration, following the arrival of the Priroda module. It was highlighted by return to Earth of U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid after 188 days in space, first U.S. crew exchange aboard Russian Space Station Mir, and fourth Shuttle-Mir docking. Lucid's long-duration spaceflight set new U.S. record as well as world record for a woman. She embarked to Mir March 22 with STS-76 mission. Succeeding her on Mir for an approximately four-month stay was Blaha, who returned in January 1997. STS-79 also marked second flight of SPACEHAB module in support of Shuttle-Mir activities and first flight of SPACEHAB Double Module configuration. The forward portion of the double module housed experiments conducted by the crew before, during and after Atlantis was docked to the Russian space station. The aft portion of the double module housed the logistics equipment to be transferred to the Russian space station. Logistics include food, clothing, experiment supplies, and spare equipment for Mir. Shuttle-Mir linkup occurred at 11:13 p.m. EDT, Sept. 18, following R-bar approach. Hatches opened at 1:40 a.m., Sept. 19, and Blaha and Lucid exchanged places at 7 a.m. EDT. Awaiting Blaha on Mir were Valery Korzun, Mir 22 commander, and Alexander Kaleri, flight engineer. During five days of mated operations, two crews transferred more than 4,000 pounds (1,814 kg) of supplies to Mir,

including logistics, food and water generated by orbiter fuel cells. Three experiments also were transferred: Biotechnology System (BTS) for study of cartilage development; Material in Devices as Superconductors (MIDAS) to measure electrical properties of high-temperature superconductor materials; and Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA), containing several smaller experiments, including self-contained aquatic systems. About 2,000 pounds (907 kg) of experiment samples and equipment transferred from Mir to Atlantis; total logistical transfer to and from station of more than 6,000 pounds (2,722

kg) was most extensive to date. During her approximately six-month stay on Mir, Lucid conducted research in following fields: advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences, microgravity research and space sciences. Specific experiments included: Environmental Radiation Measurements to ascertain ionizing radiation levels aboard Mir; Greenhouse-Integrated Plant Experiments, to study effect of microgravity on plants, specifically dwarf

wheat; and Assessment of Humoral Immune Function During Long-Duration Space Flight, to gather data on effect of long-term spaceflight on the human immune system and involving collection of blood serum and saliva samples. Some research conducted in newest and final Mir module, Priroda, which had arrived at the Russian space station during Lucid’s stay. (Source : Wikipedia) Mission patch on the cover relates to international cooperation in space

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Flight STS-80 Commander Kenneth Cockrell Pilot Kent Rominger MS Tamara Jernigan MS Thomas Jones MS Story Musgrave KSC Launch Date 19.11.1996 EAFB Landing 7.12.1996 Purpose / ORFEUS-SPAS 2 Main Payload

STS-80 marked the third flight of the WSF that flew on STS-60 and STS-69 and the third flight to use the German-built Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph-Shuttle Pallet Satellite II (ORFEUS-SPAS II). The ASTRO-SPAS program is a cooperative endeavour between NASA and the German Space Agency, DARA. Both satellites were deployed and retrieved during the mission. STS-80 was the 21st flight of Columbia and the 80th flight overall in NASA's Space Shuttle program. Columbia had last flown on mission STS-78 in the summer of 1996. Other experiments on STS-80 were the Space Experiment Module (SEM), The National Institutes of Health NIH-R4 Experiment, a series of bone cell experiments known as CCM-A (formerly called STL/NIH-C-6), the Biological Research in Canister (BRIC-09) Experiment, the Commercial MDA ITA Experiment (CMIX-5), the Visualization in an Experimental Water Capillary pumped Loop (VIEW-CPL) Experiment.

ORFEUS-SPAS II, a free-flying satellite, was deployed and retrieved using the RMS. The goal of this astrophysics mission was to investigate the rarely explored far- and extreme-ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and study the very hot and very cold matter in the universe. ORFEUS-SPAS II attempted a large number of observing programs. Among the many areas in which scientists hoped to gain new insights during this mission were the evolution of stars, the structure of galaxies, and the nature of the interstellar medium, and others. Many of the objects looked at had never before been observed in the far-ultraviolet. ASTRO-SPAS was a carrier designed for launch, deployment and retrieval by the Space Shuttle. Once deployed from the Shuttle's RMS, ASTRO-SPAS operated quasi-autonomously for 14 days in the vicinity of the Shuttle. The carrier's inclination was 28.4 degrees with an altitude of 218 statute miles (351 km). After completion of the free flight phase, the satellite was retrieved by the RMS, returned to the Shuttle cargo bay and returned to Earth. The one-meter diameter ORFEUS-Telescope with the Far Ultraviolet (FUV) Spectrograph and the Extreme Ultraviolet

(EUV) Spectrograph comprised the main payload. A secondary, but highly complementary, payload was the Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph (IMAPS). In addition to the astronomy payloads, ORFEUS-SPAS II carries the Surface Effects Sample Monitor (SESAM), the ATV Rendezvous Pre-Development Project (ARP), and the Student Experiment on ASTRO-SPAS (SEAS). The free-flying Wake Shield Facility (WSF-3) made its third flight into orbit. The Facility was a 12 foot (3.7 m) diameter, free-flying stainless steel disk designed to generate an "ultra-vacuum" environment in space in which to grow semiconductor thin films for use in advanced electronics. The STS-80 astronaut crew deployed and retrieved the WSF during the 16 day mission using Columbia's "robot arm," or Remote Manipulator System. Wake Shield is sponsored by the Space Processing Division in NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications. Wake Shield was designed, built and is operated by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center at the University of Houston--a NASA Commercial Space Center--in conjunction with its industrial partner, Space Industries, Inc., also in Houston.

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Polish Copernicus Postmarks - continued from page 17

6. Inaugural Flight of Plane PLL “LOT” Ił-62 “Tadeusz

Kościuszko” (Polish General who lived in XVIII-XIX century and was

an insurgent against Russian occupation of Poland, Hero of Poland and USA) from Warsaw –Chicago, leaving as per commem canc.-

Warsaw 1 -17.05.1972-PLL “LOT” Warsaw-Chicago-Warsaw. Topical stamp, !!! Most IMPORTANT- RED CANCEL- “Because of

technical reasons flight was in fact made by Plane Ił-62 “Nicolaus Copernicus”.

On the reverse is canc. of receipt-Warsaw 44-21.08.1972 and red

canc.-“Covers were transported from Warsaw-Chicago-Warsaw and all covers were lightly damaged during transport.”

7. Inaugural Charter Flight of Plane PLL “LOT” Ił-62 “Nicolaus

Coperncius” Warsaw-Montreal, leaving as on commem.canc.-

Warsaw 19-Central Air-Port-12.07.1972, Receipt in Montreal-AMF P.O.-17.07.1972. On reverse are cancels of Delivery Post – Poste

Restante -17.07.1972 and receipt cancel of Warsaw 3-24.07.1972.

8. Post-card issued July 1972 dedicated to 500th Anniv. of Copernicus Birth of real post-run. Post-Office canc. of

sender- KOPERNIKI ( Copernics –Lower Silesia Region, home ofCopernicus Family ) -06.12.1972 – The Post-

Telecommunications Office at KOPERNIKI,

9. Post-cover issued October 1971 dedicated to 500th Anniv.

of Copernicus Birth. Commem. Postmark of KOPERNIKI (Copernics -20.05.1973- Five Centuries of The Copernicus

Era

10. Post-card issued Aug.1971 dedicated to 500th Anniv. of

Copernicus Birth –Polish Map o Sky of XVIth century, Comm.canc.- KOPERNIKI ( Copernics )-22.05.1973-Five

Centuries of The Copernicus Era

11. Cover of real post-run sent from Post-Office at KOPERNIKI (Copernics )-Post-Telecommunications Office Koperniki –

15.05.1972. Red canc.- Opening of The Post-Office KOPERNIKI-Solar System,

Sender as per reverse red cancel- Village’s Committee of

Celebrations of 500th Anniv.of Copernicus Birth, as enclosed in writing dated 11.05.1972 with 2 red cancels: -Village’s Committee

of Celebrations of 500th Anniv. of Copernicus Birth,-Koperniki ( Copernics ) –The Home of Great Astronomer from the occasion of

499thAnniv. of His Birth, 1473-1972,

12. Interesting cover with Post-Office canc.-KOPERNIKI-15.05.1972,

Upper violet canc.-KOPERNIKI-The Home of Great Astronomer from the occasion of 499th Anniv. of His Birth,1473-1972,

Middle violet-Village’s Committee of Celebrations of 500th Anniv. of Copernicus Birth. Below,larger,violet-Opening of The Post-Office

KOPERNIKI – Solar System.

8, 9,

10

11,

12 below

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I hugged with Aliens !

This is an amazing story. Hard to believe, but true, very

true. The photo’s herewith will prove it. To say it plainly:

I have hugged with Alien beings!

It happened last Summer, on a sunny day in August. I did not have to travel far to meet the Aliens. They were

in my hometown Groningen. To be exact: inside the Groninger Museum. They stayed there for about half a

year. Later on they travelled along, wandering around

Our World.

In the same Museum I climbed on a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), the spaceship of the Aliens. The ship was

not empty; there were light waves inside, the result of

contact with human brains. I will tell you about that later. The Aliens were grouping around nearby. There

were six of them in a circle. One could kneel and embrace them.

A strange thing then happened: the Alien’s eyes were

glowing and you could feel his heartbeat. I checked the

beat was not from my own heart. And another strange thing occurred: their feet lit up!

Now it is time to tell you ”what the heck” was

happening here? My granddaughter Lisette and I were

visiting a world-famous exhibition of the Japanese female artist Mariko Mori (Tokyo 1967, pictured below),

called Oneness. The green, child-sized

‘time travellers of the future’ form an

interactive artwork.

They stimulate visitors to open themselves up

to the Utop ian yearnings to discover

the unknown. The

Aliens are made of Technogel, which feels

pleasantly soft, just like skin.

In the mid-nineties Mariko Mori made her

breakthrough in the international art world

w i t h s t a g e d p h o t o g r a p h y ,

d r a w i n g s ,

performances and installations. All her

works cover themes such as time, space, Utopia, reality and spirituality. In

doing so, Mori delves into both Japanese and Western

(youth) culture, which she interweaves with influences from modern popular culture, design, fashion, music,

manga, science fiction

and high tech, into her

own eclectic style.

Mori studied in Tokyo ( B u n k a F a s h i o n

Co l l ege ) . London (Chelsea Art College)

and New York (Whitney

Museum). Her work was purchased by

museums in Paris (George Pompidou),

Los Angeles (County

Museum), the Israel Museum and the

M u s e u m o f Contemporary Art in Miami. Her art collection called

Esoteric Cosmos is quite famous.

Dream Temple was her first large interactive

architectonic project, followed by

Wave UFO, her most spectacular work up to the present. It represents a synthesis between the various

ways of travelling: spatially, mentally and temporally.

It is a wonderful hybrid object, twelve meters long and five meters tall. The key concept of the Wave UFO is

the idea of ‘unity’.

In Milan Mori found an Italian architect who supervised the construction of the UFO. A company specialized in

chassis-building for Lamborghini realized the project. A

holographic paint was specially developed for the exterior of the object. This was the UFO Lisette and I

were climbing in. But before that we both got three electrodes attached to our foreheads. Inside are three

seats, specially made for receiving a relaxed the

human form. Our electrodes were plugged into a hole in the wall, and our ‘space voyage’ could begin. Brain

waves like alpha, beta theta and delta were projected at the ceiling in colourful circles of blue, red and

yellow. If you concentrate (eyes shut) with your fellow

passenger, the colours will merge. Green bubbles appear, followed by yellow spermazoids, then a bright

sunlight and floating crystals. You feel like in another dimension.

In fifteen minutes it is all over. Puzzled and dazzled

you leave the UFO.

This paradise-like event was created by Mori with the

help of the Japanese medical brainspecialist Dr. Masahiro Kahato, who after four years of

experimentation translated brain waves in real time

into graphic colours and figures.

A sensational claim from Bert van Eijck supported by photos from Lisette Brouwer

One little green Alien

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Mori’s exhibition

covers time and our

bond with the past and the future. It

deals with her quest for the universe and

the cosmological experience of our

forefathers with

m e g a l i t h i c monuments, menhirs

and stone circles.

This is a wonderful

experience.

Above right : The author hugging the

circle of Aliens

Right Ready to go into the UFO

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The Wave UFO

and below the Cosmic Experience inside the EFO

Aliens in Astro-Philately

There are stamps and postal

cancellations for Aliens and UFO’s in

Astro-Philately. You even can make quite a collection of it, including postal

stationery and First Day Covers. In the 70’s this theme was a ‘hot item’ in the

news, caused by publications in press,

books and movies too about the Roswell-incident in New Mexico. A spaceship with

Aliens onboard may have crashed in the desert in 1946. The US Government

covered this up, was the story, but this

secret came into the open in the 70’s.

At least three postal cancels were used for UFO-congresses. These are:

*Mainz, Germany 6-11-1967 *Gentofte, Denmark 17-12-1982

*Garchingen, Germany, 1985 OZMA-

project.

The following stamps depict UFO’s and/or Aliens: Rep. Guinee 7-4-1972 series of six

Grenada 17-8-1978, series of 3 + MS Paraguay 16-5-1978, series of nine

about future exploration two of which show mythical aliens, as below.

San Marino 19-5-1997, one stamp

And relating to sci-fi literature. San Marino 28-8-1998 series of

sixteen, Israel 5-12-2000,

series of three

Great Britain 6-6-1995, series of four

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Ian Ridpath well known as a published author on Astronomy and Astrophilately presents the first of a two part article which gives you a flavour of what can be found in much more detail on his website on the historical aspect of our topic.

The Space Age began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik

was part of the USSR’s contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY), a global scientific research

effort with the aim of improving our understanding of

the Earth as a planet. Of particular interest to philatelists is that the IGY was the subject of the first

widespread release of space-themed stamps.

Prior to 1957, stamps with an astronomical or

astronautical theme were few and far between, but they do exist. In fact, when I came to assemble a set of

web pages listing and describing them I found more than I had expected - in all, over 60 different stamp

issues met my criteria, which required that the “astro” aspect must be either the main subject of the stamp or

occupy a significant part of its composition. I rejected

designs that were stylized, such as flags or coats of arms bearing stars, along with mythological figures.

Here is a selection of my favourites.

Constellations The first stamp with a recognisably astronomical subject was issued by Brazil in 1884, showing the

Southern Cross. In the Gibbons catalogue it is

numbered 84, so it’s convenient to think of it as “84 from 84” for short. The depiction of the constellation is

somewhat crude but it does include the all-important fifth

star that prevents it from being simply a symbolic

representation. Although the

Gibbons catalogue describes the colour as blue it is

virtually monochrome. Mint copies are fairly expensive

and difficult to come by;

shown here is a lightly postmarked used version.

Being such a potent astronomical and religious symbol,

the Southern Cross inevitably turns up more often than

any other constellation on stamps. In 1890, Brazil produced a set of ten stamps with a range of colours

and values, the design being a modified version of the 1884 one with more realistic stars. Eight members of

this series reappeared nine

years later overprinted with

new values.

The most beautiful and realistic representation of the

Southern Cross appears on a 1930 stamp from Italy,

c o m m e m o r a t i n g a

transatlantic flight from Rome to Rio de Janeiro by a

pioneering Italian aviator, Italo Balbo. This stamp goes one better than the others by showing not five but six

stars in the Cross. A rare design variant, apparently

restricted to one stamp per sheet, shows a seventh star in the Cross.

Of other constellations, Ursa Major – or, more correctly,

the seven stars within it that make up the shape of the Plough - is predictably the second most popular. Its first

philatelic appearance came in 1933 on a pair of stamps from Cyrenaica, a province of Libya in the days when

that part of north Africa was under Italian control. The

stamps commemorated another transatlantic flight by Italo Balbo, this time from Italy to Chicago, and

illustrated how the Plough can be used to identify the north pole star, Polaris, in neighbouring Ursa Minor, a

trick passed down by ancient navigators.

Both the Plough and the Southern Cross appeared on a

pair of Japanese stamps from 1952 commemorating the 75th anniversary of Japan’s membership of the

Universal Postal Union. In another Japanese stamp the following year, the Plough and pole star were seen in

the sky over Tokyo Observatory, with the addition of W

-shaped Cassiopeia. A simple but elegant Canadian stamp from the same year depicts the Plough and pole

star behind a northern gannet, a type of sea bird that breeds profusely in northeastern Canada.

The World’s Oldest Astronomy and Space Stamps

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Observatories Observatories appear on a number of pre-1957 stamps,

although few of them are recognized as major research centres today. The first to be depicted was the little-

known Poczobut Observatory, on what happened to be

the first astro-stamp of the 20th century. It was issued in 1921 by the even more obscure state of Central

Lithuania, an area of eastern Europe that was at the time under Polish control. The Poczobut Observatory

lies on top of the main building of Vilnius University,

Lithuania, and is named after a distinguished early director, Martin Poczobut.

Most famous of all the observatories featured prior to

1957 is Palomar, home of the iconic 200-inch reflector whose great dome is shown on a 3c US stamp from

1948. Produced in vast quantities, this stamp can still

be found cheaply and should form a part of any astrophilately collection. Of the other observatories

commemorated on stamps of this era perhaps the most important is the Pic du Midi, seen on a French issue

from 1951. At 2860 metres up in the French Pyrenees,

the Pic was the first of the truly high-altitude observatories. founded in 1878 as a meteorological

station, it was where the first coronagraph to examine the Sun’s outer layers was installed. At the time this

stamp was issued, the largest telescopes were of 0.6 m

aperture, one housed in the Baillaud dome (right foreground) and

the other in the Gentili dome (left

of the taller of the two radio masts).

In 1963 the Gentili

dome became the home of a 1-m

reflector partly funded by NASA

which was used to map the Moon in preparation for the

Apollo landings.

Undoubtedly the greatest of all pre-1957 astro issues celebrates the opening of the Tonantzintla Observatory,

Mexico, in 1942, although the observatory itself is not shown on any of the six stamps in the set, (shown on our front cover). Rather, there are five black-and-white

photographs of astronomical objects and a graph. The subjects and face values are: the Horsehead Nebula in

Orion (2 cent); total solar eclipse (5 cent); the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, in Canes Venatici (10 cent); the

Sombrero Galaxy, M104, in Virgo (20 cent); the Ring

Nebula, M57, in Lyra (40 cent); and the Hertzsprung-

Russell diagram (1 peso).

It is not widely realized that these images are not the

work of Tonantzintla but come from the Harvard plate collection. However, over the following half century

Tonantzintla built up its own collection of astronomical plates taken with a Schmidt telescope built by Harvard,

until serious observing ceased in 1955 due to

increasing light pollution. These stamps are often offered for sale in two separate lots: non-airmail (the

first three values) and airmail (the three highest values). Any serious astrophilatelist should seek these

out at stamp shows or on the Internet.

Another great observatory is Pulkovo near St

Petersburg, Russia, which gained an international reputation for its work on positional astronomy and

double stars. Destroyed during World War II, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1954, an event that was

commemorated on a stamp issued by the former USSR.

As well as the observatory itself,

there are portraits of three of its first five

directors: Friedrich

Georg Wilhelm von S t r u v e , F y o d o r

A l e k s a n d r o v i c h B r e d i k h i n a n d

Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky. Bredikhin appears again two years later on

a Soviet stamp commemorating the 125th anniversary

of his birth; behind him, a comet can be seen hovering over the domes of Pulkovo.

As well as modern

observatories, three

archaic ones make an appearance on pre-

1957 stamps. My favourite is from the

former Indian state of

Jaipur, showing one of the giant stone

sundials built by Maharaja Jai Singh II around 1730. It forms part of an

observatory consisting of stone instruments for timekeeping and measuring the positions of celestial

bodies without any optical aid at all, long after the

invention of the telescope. The Jaipur observatory is preserved as a nat ional

monument.

Much older is a stone tower from

Kyongju (also transliterated as Gyeongju), South Korea, thought

to have been built around AD 640 and now a UNESCO World

Heritage Site. From the top of

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this tower, known as Cheomseongdae - literally meaning

“tower for star observation” - Korean astronomers kept a

permanent watch on the sky, noting all occurrences such as bright meteors, eclipses, comets and novae. Kyongju

Observatory appeared first in 1946 on a stamp issued while South Korea was under US military government,

and turned up again in 1948 and 1956.

The third ancient astronomical monument is a supposed

Inca observatory at Machu Picchu, depicted in a Peruvian stamp from 1952. Known as the Inthuatana

stone, it is a granite pillar surrounded by an irregular pedestal carved out of the rock on a mountain peak. It is

aligned on the setting point of the Sun at the December

solstice and is said to have been used by Inca priests for Sun-worshipping ceremonies.

More details of the Stamps depicted on our cover can be found in full colour and with SG no’s at these URLs within Ian’s website….

Mexico 1942 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1942mexico.htm

Italy 1942 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1942italy.htm

Cyrenaica 1933 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1933cyrenaica.htm

Greenland 1945 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1945greenland.htm

Russia 1955 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1955russia.htm

In the second part of his article to be published in our Summer edition, Ian Ridpath describes some early issues

which features Astronomers, Astronautics and The Earth.

And within Part One of this feature….

Brazil 1884 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1884brazil.htm

Brazil 1899 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1899brazil.htm

Central Lithuania 1921 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1921lithuania.htm

Italy 1930 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1930italy.htm

Poland 1923 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1923poland.htm

France 1951 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1951france.htm

Russia 1954 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1954ussr.htm

Jaipur 1947 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1947jaipur.htm

Korea 1946 http://www.ianridpath.com/

stamps/1946korea.htm

U.N.—50 Years of Space Age Minisheets See page 37 of Jan 08 issue for details of how to order

32

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U.S. Prime Recovery Ships and Covers By Bert van Eick

This article first appeared in Mijn Stokpaardje for July 1994 and last year was specially translated from the Dutch by Eleanor Coker for Orbit publication. Once again thanks to Eleanor for making Bert’s study of these covers available to an English speaking readership.

Just as letters with NASA cancellations belong in a collection entitled “Manned space flight in America”, it is

obvious that also letters from recovery ships with a ship’s postmark and ship’s cancellation must not be missing.

NASA cancellations are there for the launch letters (see my June 2006 article in Orbit - Dead NASA cancellations Still Alive and kKcking), the recovery letters are there for

the landing. This applies particularly to the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab projects. All the astronauts

from these four American space travel projects came back to Earth after their space journey in a capsule that

landed in the ocean. It was the duty of the American

navy to find the space travellers as quickly as possible and to recover them from the sea. For that purpose

recovery ships were stationed in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Different ships were usually launched for each

mission. It was always known in advance in which ocean

the astronaut(s) should land. The main recovery ship would go there; the so-called Prime Recovery Ship (PRS).

The other navy ships on station were present as a reserve, the so-called Secondary Recovery Ships (SRS).

These navy ships are often “floating cities” with thousands of men on board. As far as facilities are

concerned there is also a post office, run by navy

personnel trained as postal employees and then also qualified to carry out all post office business. On the day

of the landing and the on board recovery of the space traveller(s), letters were often sent by the crew with this

happy news. There were also letters from collectors,

which were sent in advance. All these letters received the official ship’s postmark and the special ship’s cancellation.

For collectors only letters cancelled on the prime recovery ship are of interest. Letters from the secondary ships can

only count if they were in the area of the PRS (because they were then in the “correct ocean”) and then only as a

supplement. This article deals only with the prime

recovery ships.

The PRS-covers, that philatelically record the manned

American space flights up to the Space Shuttle, were used from 1961 to 1974. It began with the ballistic flight

of Alan B. Shepard on 5 May 1961 and ended on 8

February 1974 with the landing of Skylab-4 with astronauts Jerry Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue.

The USS Lake Champlain looked after the recovery of Shepard. There are only 44 known letters with the ship’s

postmark and cancellation; such a letter would sell at

auction for many thousands of dollars. The USS New

Orleans picked up the Skylab-4 crew. This fact is

recorded on thousands of landing letters; such a

letter would cost about five dollars (€4,50).

In the thirteen years from Mercury up to and including Skylab 40 different recovery cancellations

were used. There were fewer than 40 prime recovery ships, as some navy ships used more than one ship’s

cancellation. That also applies to the ship’s

postmarks. Usually there were machine stamps and hand stamps, that were both used, but the totals - as

far as is known - vary quite a lot. There were often many fewer cancelled by machine than by hand, or

the other way round. The hand-stamps were often

carelessly placed. Also the stamp printing left something to be desired: the top or bottom of the

stamp is faint. There are more differences. The space in the date line is often not the same on every stamp.

That is because more stamps were used. The stamps

can also differ because they were set by hand, which can also cause differences in spacing.

But there is even more. In the ship’s postmark the name of the navy ship can be above or below the

date. In addition the description of the ship in the postmark can be registered differently as follows:

“USS” or “U.S.S.” followed by the ship’s name. For the

sake of accurate philatelic history we note that up to Apollo-15 all landing letters from prime recovery ships

were actually handled at the post office on the ship. However the flood of letters became so great that

two measures were put into place: 1) only two letters

per collector were allowed for cancelling and 2) the main navy post office in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, also did

cancelling. That meant that from Apollo-15 onwards about half the landing letters were cancelled on board

and the other half were cancelled in Hawaii. There is no difference in the cancelling. The measures did not

really have any great effect on the flood of letters to

be cancelled.

That it got at times too crazy for the navy crew is

shown by the story that in one discreet moment six sacks of post were coolly dumped overboard to be rid

of them. It is not known if this incident was the direct

cause, but it is a fact that from Apollo-16 onwards a rigorous rule was applied. It was ordered that on the

day of the landing of a capsule the ship’s post office should be closed for letters from collectors. On that

day letters could only be cancelled in Hawaii. This did not apply to letters from the ship’s crew. One day

later the post office at sea would be open again for

collectors’ letters. Letters cancelled with the correct date have thus been cancelled in Hawaii (a little false,

therefore), while letters cancelled a day later were likely to have been on board the recovery ship, but

here the date as seen historically, is not exact. With

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Come Swap With Me !

Our Moscow based member Oleg Zaburdaev is seeking to purchase at least five copies of

the covers illustrated below. If you can help him please contact via email (olezab@mail.ru)

or write to him at Box 63, Moscow 211, Russia 115211. He is looking for covers, postcards, cancellations (from Western Europe, USA and Asia)

related to Yuri Gagarin. In exchange he can offer from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan—a range of

stamps, covers, postcards, special cancellations and Soviet postal stationery items.

Oleg would like to know about the special cancel on these items. Is it official or

private ?

38

From Bert van Eijck, Netherlands

This is in response to the Editorial An Uncertain Future…

in the last Orbit.

First of all I’d like to pass many compliments to our

editor Jeff Dugdale, who is willing to continue his fruitful Pro Deo work for our magazine ORBIT after his

retirement from college later this year. He earns, in my

view, a lot of respect from all ASSS members.

That said, now to work. What can we as ASSS members do to upgrade our

magazine? We can do it by finding more members, by

writing smart articles about our hobby, but above all there is a need of money in ORBIT’s pocket. No nickels

or dimes, but Big Money: real banknotes!

ORBIT then can go to the printer, who can do a good job with the text and above all with the photographs

and pictures, especially those in full colour.

Here is a small list we can do – or choose from – to

generate the necessary money: *Maybe we can ALL become a life-member, to put at

once big money in ORBIT’s pocket.

*OR: Raise each year, step by step, the contribution for all members.

*No complimentaires anymore; this is NO free Orbit for those who now get our magazine for free, like editors

from sister societies and some authors non ASSS member.

*Everyone who wants to publish in ORBIT has to be a

ASSS member for at least a year and pay the contribution at once. It is NOT true there are not

enough stories from inside ASSS. *Organize twice a year an auction with astro-material,

donated by members for free. All the benefits are for

ASSS and ORBIT. *At last: ASSS has rich members, poor members en

members-in-between. Maybe the first ones can give from their heart once – or every year – a donation. And

perhaps the in-between can do the same.

I leave it to the ASSS members and the Board to react

on this. I will fully cooperate with the outcome, and I promise to do my share. B v E 16.1.08

From Peter Hoffman, Bellmore, New York

Hello Jeff, I just finished reading the January issue of Orbit. Excellent as usual especially the colored pages. I would be all for an electronic version of Orbit which could be

Readers Respond

downloaded as a PDF file. You could set it up with a password so that non-members could not access it. I don't know how to do that but I get another stamp newsletter that way. P.H. 16.1.08

From Don Hillger, Colorado, USA

Dear Jeff, The Togo stamp below shows a reflector telescope of some kind apparently associated with Halley’s Comet from 1986. I wonder if any members might know what is being shown ? Could this be one of the Astro payloads for the shuttle ? D.H. 1.2.08 Editor’s note: responses so far by email e.g. from Ian Ridpath and George Fox suggest that this particular probe was slated for launch but cancelled (perhaps after the Challenger disaster). Does any member have any other idea on the craft’s identity?

From Eleanor Coker, Ashford, Kent Dear Jeff, Re the American Star Wars sheet in the last Orbit...After issuing that, the USPS invited the public to vote for its favourite stamp of the 15 and no surprise that Yoda was the overwhelming winner.

The Jedi Master duly got his very own issue released on 25 October 2007. E.C.10.1.08

ORBIT

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“Designed by Alec Bartos”

On page 36 of the last Orbit we featured work by our Romanian member Alec Bartos who had designed the Romanian issues marking the 50th anniversary of Sputnik in 2007 and some previous hand cancels and cachets related to the Soviet-Romanian spaceflight, Soyuz 40 featuring Dumitru Prunariu. Here, writing on 10th January, Alec tells us a little about his career as an artist and space stamp designer.

I was born on 19th September 1975 in Cluj-Napoca Romania. I graduated from the Art High

School with a graphic diploma in 1994 and than the Art Academy in my hometown with a degree in mural

painting and restoration in year 2000.

Since then I've worked at different restoration sites in

the summer and as a designer/art director in advertising business. Two years ago I quit my art

director job but I mostly do the same - restoration in

the summer and graphic design as a freelancer working at home.

I'm married (Dora is my wife and she is a doctor) - but

we have no children yet. All my family are artists (My dad is painter-professor of art, mom in textile art, my

sister graphics and my little brother (15 years old)

wants to go to Art High School too :) but none of this has stopped me from dreaming since I was young

about becoming a cosmonaut.

I have collected stamps since I was in kindergarten

and I decide to collect only space stamps in my first year of school. That my passion about space travel

goes back a long time as you can see from the picture with me in space suit at kindergarten carnival,

opposite.

After I managed to complete my collection with all

space stamps issued in Eastern European countries, I put my attention in collecting space covers mainly for

the manned missions. I made my debut in astrophilatelic competition in 2003, my exhibit "Soviet

international manned space flights" winning a large

silver in an important national philatelic exhibition.

In the few last years I have managed to win some competitions for Romanian stamps and cachets design

(first in 2004 with the "Roses" issue) but my greatest

achievement to date came last year when the Romanian Post decide to produce a stamp to celebrate

the first earth's artificial satellite and I made the designs for all the issues.

Above Alec (left) with Soyuz 40 cosmonauts Popov and Prunariu (right) at a recent anniversary event.

As a totally "first to see" I send you the images of the As yet unissued stamps of Romania 2008 with the

theme "space conquest" (bottom of page 40). The competition ended in the late of 2007 but only in early

January was the choice of final design known... And it

was mine :) I have been waiting for this answer from Romfilatelia to tell you about this and to write about me

and the space stamp design.

The stamps were due to be on the market sometime in

February 2008 (the exact date is not known yet).

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Mini-sheet on cover and

below maxim card for

Romania’s 50th anniversary celebrations of Sputnik in

Oct 2007, designed by Alec.

Above and above left cover

cachets designed by Alec

for the anniversary of Soyuz 40.

Alec’s accepted designs for

the 2008 Romanian Space Issues, covering Soviet and

American achievement 50 years ago.