The Space Race was a technological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in demonstrating superiority in aerospace capabilities, including artificial satellites launches, robotic space probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately landing on the Moon. This blog features my collection of US and Soviet Union space events on covers and press photos.
1971-07-26 USA Apollo 15
Photo: The Apollo 15 crew (from left to right), James Irwin, Alfred Worden, Dave Scott.
Photo: The Apollo 15 crew and their insignia.
Apollo 15 Crew-Signed Insurance Cover Originally from the Personal Collection of Mission Command Module Pilot Al Worden, signed and Certified (Twice), with Signed LOA. A philatelic cover, postmarked July 26, 1971, with a pictorial NASA cancellation from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, over an 8¢ "Antarctic Treaty" stamp. At left is a color cachet of the mission insignia with "NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club" printed above and "Official Commemorative Cover" below. The three crew members have boldly signed beneath the cachet: "Dave Scott", "Al Worden", and "Jim Irwin". Underneath the flap, Worden has signed, numbered, and initialed: "From My Personal Collection/ Al Worden/ Apollo 15 CMP/ #38 AMW". He has also signed beneath the flap: "Insurance Cover from my/ Personal Collection/ Al Worden/Apollo 15 CMP".
A signed Certificate of Authenticity on his letterhead that gives a precise explanation of the history and purpose of these insurance covers. It states (in part): "I hereby certify that the commemorative postal cover number 38 included with this letter was an Apollo 15 insurance cover. It has been in my possession since the flight in 1971. Insurance covers were provided to selected space flight crews by the stamp club at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. The purpose of these covers was to provide for the crew families in the event the crew did not return from their flight. There was no other insurance available to the crews because of the risk of flights to the moon..." - Heritage Auctions
Photo: Apollo 15 crew with a model of the memorial plaque that they had left on the moon.
Apollo 15 Bishop Cover, postmarked at KSC on launch day July 26, 1971. Signed by Dave Scott, Al Worden and Jim Irwin.
Photo: Spectators at Cape Kennedy waiting to watch the launch of Apollo 15.
Apollo 15 KSC mailer's postmark permit cancelled on launch day, 26 July, 1971.
After achieving trajectory towards the Moon, the lunar module (LM) and command and service module (CSM) decoupled from the SIVB, which was left on a course towards the Moon where it impacted on July 29, 1971, providing a seismic source for the ALSEP seismic stations.
1971 Apollo 15 crew signed moon landing cover. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club cacheted cover signed by the complete crew of Apollo 15 - Dave Scott, Al Worden & Jim Irwin, together with a MSC Stamp Club mimeographed letter. - RegencyStamps
Photo: David Scott and the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) at Hadley Rille on the moon.
The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) or lunar rover was first used during the Apollo 15 mission on July 31, 1971.
Photo: This drawing shows how the Apollo 15 astronauts will communicate to Earth.
During three periods of extravehicular activity (EVA) on July 31, and August 1 and 2, Scott and Irwin traveled 17.5 miles in the lunar rover on the moon, collected more than 170 pounds of lunar samples, set up the ALSEP array, obtained a core sample from about 10 feet beneath the lunar surface, and provided extensive oral descriptions and photographic documentation of geologic features in the vicinity of the landing site during the three days (66 hours, 55 minutes) on the lunar surface.
Video: At the end of the last Apollo 15 moon walk, Commander David Scott performed a live demonstration for the television cameras. He held out a geologic hammer and a feather and dropped them at the same time. Because they were essentially in a vacuum, there was no air resistance and the feather fell at the same rate as the hammer, as Galileo had concluded hundreds of years before - all objects released together fall at the same rate regardless of mass.
First day cover released on August 2, 1971, with a cachet honoring the broadcast of Dave Scott postmarking a cover on the lunar surface, signed in black felt tip by Dave Scott, Al Worden, and Jim Irwin. - RRAuction
Photo: "An instrument and communications systems officer at the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Tex., watches the lunar module take off from the moon on his television screen in the Mission Control Center. AP Wirephoto. August 3, 1971."
The Apollo 15 Particles and Fields Subsatellite (PFS-1) was a small satellite released into lunar orbit from the Apollo 15 Service Module. Its main objectives were to study the plasma, particle, and magnetic field environment of the Moon and map the lunar gravity field.
On August 5, 1971, Alfred Worden became the first human to carry out a deep space EVA. He exited the CM, climbed toward the rear of the SM and retrieved film cassettes from the SIM bay cameras and returned to the CM.
Photo: Apollo 15 command module splashdown in the Pacific on August 7, 1971.
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club cachet cover, cancelled on the recovery date August 7, 1971 at Kennedy Space Center, signed by Dave Scott, Al Worden and Jim Irwin.
Photo: USS Okinawa, the prime recovery ship for the Apollo 15 astronauts.
Apollo 15 USS Okinawa Captain's cover produced by the ship's commanding officer.
Apollo 15 USS Okinawa recovery ship cover with Beck rubber stamped cachet, postmarked on August 7, 1971, signed by Dave Scott, Al Worden, Jim Irwin and Apollo 15 Recover Team's officer-in-charge, Lt. Fred W. Schmidt.
Apollo 15 USS Okinawa recovery ship cover with Beck rubber stamped cachet and Commander in Chief Pacific corner card, postmarked on August 7, 1971,
Photo: Cake cutting ceremony for the Apollo 15 crew onboard USS Okinawa.
Plain cover cancelled USS Okinawa, August 9, 1971. Back of the cover autographed by crew involved in the recovery of the command module.
In 1970, a German stamp dealer by the name of Hermann Sieger set out to recruit an Apollo crew to carry some philatelic covers to the moon and back. The Apollo 15 crew agreed to carry one hundred covers for a payment of $7000 to each of them. The agreement was that they would not be sold until after the Apollo program wrapped up. Along with Sieger's covers, the astronauts added 300 of their own (actually 298 as two of the 300 were destroyed before the flight).
Apollo 15 Lunar Module Flown "Sieger" Crew-Signed Cover, serial number 069, one of 100 sent to and sold by Herman Sieger in 1971, with notarized certification on the verso. At upper left is hand written the following: "Landed at Hadley, Moon/July 31, 1971" above the two moonwalkers' signatures: "Dave Scott" and "Jim Irwin". At lower left are the signatures of the crew: Dave Scott, Al Worden and Jim Irwin. It bears a 10¢ "First Man on the Moon" stamp (Scott #C76) cancelled on the launch date of July 26, 1971 at Kennedy Space Center. At lower right is a se-tenant pair of 8¢ Decade of Achievement/ United States in Space stamps cancelled on board the U.S.S. Okinawa on the splashdown date of August 7, 1971. On the center of the verso is the typed statement: "This is to certify that this cover was onboard/ the Falcon at the Hadley-Apennine, Moon/ July 30-August 2, 1971" which is signed and notarized by Mrs. C. B. Carsey of Harris County, Texas (Houston) along with her Notary blind-stamp. At lower left of the verso Sieger's name "H.W. Sieger" is stamped then signed by him below the handwritten serial number "#069".
The NASA rule was that the astronauts had to obtain permission prior to taking anything with them on the spacecraft. For unknown reasons, these were never reported. All the covers were cancelled just after midnight the day of the flight (except this one) and then rushed through the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, where they were vacuum-packed and sealed in fireproof fiberglass. They then went to Launch Complex 39A where Scott took the package and put in a pocket of his spacesuit. These were not properly manifested.
After the flight, the crew had the covers stamped and cancelled onboard the rescue ship. They signed the covers on the way back to Houston. Shortly thereafter, the one hundred covers were forwarded to Siegel in Germany and he immediately began to sell them. The astronauts made efforts to retrieve the covers, but failed. They returned his payments but a congressional inquiry caused NASA to suspend all three from active flight status. The 298 remaining covers were confiscated and held until 1983 when NASA settled Al Worden's lawsuit out of court and returned the covers to the crew.
