1972-12-07 USA Apollo 17

An Apollo 17 launch cover featuring the mission insignia cachet, with the printed text “KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA” beneath the insignia, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt. This cover was originally from the family collection of Ron Evans. - Heritage Auctions

Photo: Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt, Ron Evans, and Gene Cernan pose in front of their Apollo spacecraft that will transport them to the Moon.

An Apollo 17 Insurance Cover featuring the mission insignia, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972, signed by Ron Evans, Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan. - Heritage Auctions

Photo: Apollo 17 astronauts during a training session on December 1, 1972.

Photo: Eugene Cernan converses with a boy in the crowd who witnessed the rollout of the Apollo 17 rocket to the launch pad.

An Apollo 17 launch cover featuring the "KSC Officials" stamped cachet, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972, signed by Harrison Schmitt, Gene Cernan and Ron Evans.

Photo: Apollo 17 crew having breakfast at suppertime in preparation for the night launch.

An Apollo 17 launch cover from "Heritage Crafts", postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt.

Photo: Alan Shepard and Harrison Schmitt in the suiting-up room. The sign above Harrison Schmitt states that Apollo 17, the final mission of the Apollo space series, is "Only a beginning" for space exploration.

An Apollo 17 launch cover from "Astro Covers", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972.

An Apollo 17 tracking station cover from “Honeysuckle Creek”, postmarked at Canberra City with a hand cancel on December 7, 1972.
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was a NASA Earth station that played a crucial role in supporting Project Apollo. It operated from 1967 until its closure in 1981. The station, which housed a 26-meter dish now decommissioned, is best known for receiving and transmitting to the world the iconic first TV images of astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon on July 21, 1969. In addition to broadcasting these historic images, Honeysuckle Creek, along with the Tidbinbilla station, maintained voice and telemetry contact with the lunar and command modules.

An Apollo 17 moon landing cover from "Colorano", featuring a “Silk” cachet depicting the Apollo 17 astronauts on the lunar surface, postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a hand cancel on December 11, 1972.

An Apollo 17 moonlanding cover from "NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club", featuring a lunar chart segment repurposed as a cover, postmarked at Houston, Texas with a machine cancel on December 11, 1972, signed by Ron Evans, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. - RegencyStamps

An Apollo 17 Moon cover from "Colorano", featuring a "Silk" cachet depicting the Apollo 17 astronauts during their lunar rover excursion, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 13, 1972.

An Apollo 17 lunar lift-off cover featuring the Lunar Module, Challenger, ascended from the moon, leaving its descent stage behind on the lunar surface as intended. The cover was postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a machine cancel on December 14, 1972.

An Apollo 17 lunar lift-off cover from "SpaceCraft Swanson", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 14, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan.

An Apollo 17 cover from "Astro Covers", featuring a photograph of the Command Module, America, taken from the Lunar Module during rendezvous and docking. This cover was postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 14, 1972.

An Apollo 17 cover from "Astro Covers", featuring Ron Evans during his spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the Service Module’s Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 17, 1972.

An Apollo 17 cover from "Orbit Covers", commemorating the crew’s in-flight news conference held 110,000 miles from Earth on December 18, 1972, highlighting discoveries made during their 75 hours at the Taurus-Littrow Valley, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 18, 1972.
On December 18, 1972, the Apollo 17 crew held a televised press conference at the end of their day. Reporters submitted questions, which capcom Fullerton relayed to the crew for their responses. By the time Cernan, Evans, and Schmitt went to sleep for their final night in space, they had reduced their distance to Earth to 84,000 miles.

Photo: The Apollo 17 command module splashed down in the South Pacific on December 19, 1972. A recovery helicopter hovers above the command module while the USS Ticonderoga stands by.

An Apollo 17 recovery cover featuring a magenta “Morris Beck” rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972, signed by Ron Evans, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.
All recovery-date hand cancellations for the Primary Recovery Ship (PRS) were applied onshore in Hawaii rather than aboard the recovery ship.

An Apollo 17 recovery cover featuring a magenta “Morris Beck” rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972. This hand cancel is an unusual variation with the month "DEC" missing.

A Apollo 17 recovery cover with a printed “Morris Beck B884” cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan.

An Apollo 17 Captain's Cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972, Gene Cernan, Ron Evans, and Harrison Schmitt. - Heritage Auctions.

An Apollo 17 Captain's Cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a very rare machine cancel on December 20, 1972. The ship’s Post Office was closed on December 19, making December 20 the earliest available date for an onboard postmark.

Apollo 17 recovery cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a very rare machine cancel on December 20, 1972, signed by the recovery crew members: Steve O'Brien, Jerry Turley, Don Thompson, "Boh" Bohannon, Wayne Lazarn, Tim Keeney, Terry May, and Jon Smart.

An Apollo 17 recovery cover featuring helicopter flight details, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a machine cancel on December 22, 1972, upon returning to port.

An Apollo 17 recovery cover, featuring autographs of the recovery team, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a machine cancel on December 22, 1972, upon returning to port.

Photo: Apollo 17 crew members Ron Evans, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt during their final press conference on January 5, 1972.

1972-04-16 USA Apollo 16

An Apollo 16 Insurance Cover featuring the mission insignia, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on April 16, 1972, signed by John Young, Charlie Duke, and Ken Mattingly. This cover was originally from the personal collection of John Young. - RRAuction

Photo: John Young, the commander of the Apollo 16 mission.

Photo: Apollo 16 astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly, and Charles M. Duke at a press conference on March 17, 1972.

An Apollo 16 launch cover featuring the "KSC Officials" stamped cachet, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a hand cancel on April 16, 1972.

Photo: Apollo 16 lunar module pilot Charles M. Duke Jr. shows his family the Apollo spacecraft that will take him, astronaut John W. Young, and Thomas K. Mattingly II to the Moon on April 16. The Dukes visited the spacecraft's white room at Complex 39. Kneeling beside Duke are his sons Thomas, 4, and Charles, 6, along with Dorothy and Guenter Wendt, North American Aviation pad leader.

Photo: The Apollo 16 astronauts during their final test before the scheduled liftoff to the Moon.

An Apollo 16 launch cover featuring the mission insignia, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a "Mailer's Postmark Permit 15" cancel on April 16, 1972.

Photo: The Apollo 16 rocket lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Kennedy on April 16, 1972.

Photo: Stars near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, photographed by John Young.

An Apollo 16 moon landing cover from "Colorano", featuring a “Silk” cachet depicting the Apollo 16 astronauts on the lunar surface, postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a hand cancel on April 20, 1972.

Photo: Charlie Duke on the moon.

An Apollo 16 moon landing cover from "Manned Spaceflight Covers", featuring a photograph of the Apollo 16 crew alongside the mission insignia, postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a hand cancel on April 20, 1972, signed by Charlie Duke.

Photo: Charlie Duke captured this image on the Moon, from the spot where he left a shrink-wrapped photo of his family.

An Apollo 16 cover from "Lunar Voyage Cachets", featuring an illustration of John Young and Charlie Duke exploring the Descartes region in their lunar rover, postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a machine cancel on April 20, 1972.
During the first EVA, John Young and Charlie Duke deployed the lunar rover and scientific experiments, then explored the Cayley Formation, collecting rock samples and measuring the Moon’s magnetic field. Their findings suggested little to no volcanic material at the Apollo 16 landing site.

An Apollo 16 cover from "Space City Cover Society", featuring an illustration of John Young as the first lunar-based astronomer, setting up the Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph to observe selected astronomical targets. The cover was postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a machine cancel on April 21, 1972.

Video: Charlie Duke took his family to the Moon.

An Apollo 16 cover from "Orbit Covers" featuring an illustration of the crew during their second EVA in the Descartes Highlands, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on April 21, 1972.
During the second EVA, Young and Duke explored Stone Mountain and collected samples from the ejecta ray of South Ray Crater, ensuring material from the 2-million-year-old crater was included in their collection.

Photo: John Young examining a large boulder during the third EVA on April 23, 1972.

An Apollo 16 cover from "Astro Covers", featuring the crew during their third EVA at North Ray Crater, where they collected geological specimens. The cover was postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on April 23, 1972.
During the third EVA, delayed by the late landing, Young and Duke had only 5 hours and 40 minutes available. They traveled to North Ray Crater, where they spent about two hours collecting geological samples from its rim. The 1-kilometer-wide, 230-meter-deep crater exposed material from deep beneath the lunar surface, including the massive “House Rock” boulder, believed to have originated about 200 meters below the surface.

An Apollo 16 lunar lift-off cover from "Lunar Voyage Cachets", featuring the first live television broadcast of an Apollo Lunar Module lifting off from the lunar surface, postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a machine cancel on April 23, 1972.

An Apollo 16 splashdown cover from "Orbit Covers", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on April 27, 1972.

An Apollo 16 recovery cover featuring a magenta "Morris Beck" rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a hand cancel on April 8, 1972, marking the ship's departure for the Apollo 16 recovery mission.

A postcard featuring the USS Ticonderoga carrier on the front, featuring a magenta a "Morris Beck" rubber-stamped cachet on the back, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on April 27, 1972.
From Apollo 16 onward, all recovery-date hand cancellations for the Primary Recovery Ship (PRS) were applied onshore in Hawaii rather than aboard the recovery ship. However, mail carried by the crew or recovery teams could still be, and was, cancelled aboard the PRS on the date of recovery.

An Apollo 16 Captain's Cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on April 27, 1972, signed by John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke. This cover was originally from the personal collection of Walter Cunningham. - Heritage Auctions

An Apollo 16 recovery cover featuring a magenta "Morris Beck" rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on April 27, 1972, signed by Captain Edward Ayes Boyd.

An Apollo 16 recovery cover featuring a magenta “Morris Beck” rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on April 27, 1972. The reverse features a hand painted cachet by artist Robert McCall.

Photo: The Apollo 16 crew being greeted by Captain Edward Boyd on the USS Ticonderoga aircraft carrier, April 27, 1972.

An Apollo 16 recovery cover featuring an illustrated "RECOVERY FORCE" stamped cachet, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a very rare machine cancel on April 27, 1972.

An Apollo 16 recovery cover flown aboard a recovery helicopter, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a very rare machine cancel on April 27, 1972, signed by recovery pilot Cdr. Arnie Fieser.

The Apollo 16 crew enjoying a good laugh at a post-flight press conference on May 3, 1972, as they look at the oranges that the newsmen placed on the table.

Photo: Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke shows a photograph of himself on the Moon alongside a scale model of Apollo 16. Duke is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his moonwalk.