NASA Space Commemorative Cover Collection — Apollo 13, Sally Ride STS-7 & Shuttle Series, 8 Pieces

A group of eight commemorative covers spanning the manned spaceflight era. Two matching "Third Moon Landing / Knowledge from the Moon" Apollo XIII cachet covers carry the Apollo 8 six-cent stamp, Cape Canaveral postmarks dated April 14, 1970 — the day the crippled Apollo 13 crew began its return — and the cachet caption "Crew of Crippled Apollo 13 Starts Back After Rounding Moon and Firing Rocket." Both bear a printed Sarzin 1970 signature at lower left and the C. Sarzin, Port Washington address. The Apollo 8 stamp (Scott #1371) was the commemorative issued for the first crewed lunar orbit mission, December 1968, and its pairing here with the Apollo 13 crisis date on a Sarzin cachet is a deliberate philatelic juxtaposition — program triumph framing program disaster.

The balance is a run of Official I.A.S.P. Series Space Shuttle cachets honoring the STS-7 mission of June 1983, each franked with the 20¢ Hot Air Ballooning stamp: No. 57 STS Launch / Dr. Sally Ride (Kennedy Space Center, Jun 18, 1983 — first U.S. flight to carry a woman), No. 58 Satellite Deployment (Cape Canaveral, Jun 19 — documenting the deployment of the Indonesian Palapa-B and Canadian Anik-C communications satellites), two examples of No. 59 SPAS-01 Deployment (Houston, Jun 22 — Challenger's remote manipulator arm grasping the SPAS-01 shuttle pallet satellite developed by Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm GmbH), and No. 60 STS-7 Landing (Edwards AFB, Jun 24 — the mission diverted from Kennedy due to fog, landing with Commander Crippen, Pilot Hauck, and Mission Specialists Ride, Fabian, and Thagard). A color "Men in Space" maximum card franked with two Republique Togolaise astronaut stamps — the 25F Alan Shepard issue and the 0.50F — rounds out the lot.

The Sarzin Apollo 13 cachets were produced by C. Sarzin of Port Washington, Long Island, a philatelic cachet maker active during the Apollo era. The April 14, 1970 postmark captures one of the most anxious days in NASA history: the oxygen tank rupture had occurred two days earlier on April 13, and the crew of Lovell, Swigert, and Haise was still more than three days from splashdown, relying on the Lunar Module as a lifeboat. Sarzin's choice of the Apollo 8 stamp — depicting earthrise over the lunar surface with the text "In the beginning God…" — adds a layer of unintended gravity to the crisis-date cover. The I.A.S.P. (International Astronautical Stamp Program) series covers from 1983 document the STS-7 mission sequentially across multiple postmark cities, a collector format that traces the mission from launch through landing across separate event cachets. The "Men in Space" maximum card is a Togolese philatelic item: Togo was among the African nations most active in issuing commemorative space stamps during the 1960s–70s, often featuring American and Soviet astronauts on colorful photographic cachets for the international collector market.

CONDITION

Good overall. The covers show light edge handling, soft corner bumps, and minor toning consistent with age; postmarks and cachets remain clear and legible throughout. The "Men in Space" maximum card has tape residue along one edge and surface scuffing; several envelope backs carry pencil notations and tape remnants.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Total: 8 Pieces
• (6) Covers: 3 5/8" × 6 1/2"
• (1) Cover: 3 3/4" × 5 3/4"
• "Men in Space" maximum card
• Apollo 8 Stamp: Scott #1371, 6¢
• STS-7 Cachets: I.A.S.P. Official Series Nos. 57–60
• STS-7 Stamp: 20¢ Hot Air Ballooning
• Maximum Card Stamps: Republique Togolaise, 25F (Alan Shepard) and 0.50F astronaut issues