My favorite topic - SPACE EXPLORATION 🚀🛰️

[karlos221]

Dear postcrossers, I would like to start a new topical series here. I would like to dedicate this thread to the theme that I love since I was 4 years old. In 1989 stamps were one of just a few opportunities to enjoy my hobby. I always loved the space stamps art and I would like to sum all the space stamps that I have in this forum. I will start with my own country and will continue more or less systematically to cover stamps, FDC’s, maximum cards and everything space related.

The main purpose of this topic is to enjoy the hobby and this particular theme with fellow postcrossers with the same interest

You all are free to contribute to this thread as far as space is involved. Share your collections and try to make some sense to it. You can describe your personal opinion on the set that you are sharing or some interesting information about the stuff depicted in the pucture.

Secondary objective is to show the rest of us, what you have in your collection and perhaps what you would like to get in the future.

We, as a space enthusiasts shall unite and maybe help each other complete our collections or just to make each other avare of space issues from the past or present times.

Also I would like to challenge you, with a different favorite topic, to create such a thread and let the rest of us to enjoy your favorite theme

Let’s light up this candle finally and поехали!

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My first selection is the issue from 1957 and I believe that it is the first time that czechoslovakian stamps were depicting space exploration. This time it was connected to the international geophysical year (International Geophysical Year - Wikipedia).

In the first picture, there is the astronomical observatory in Ondřejov. I will definitely make an xtremephilately picture of it one day

The second stamp is depicting the meteorological station at Lomnický štít mountain peak. You can see that the station looks a little bit different now, there is newer part of the building attached to the original one.

And finally the third stamp from this collection is quite accurately depicting the Sputnik 2 spacecraft (the one with the dog Laika ( лимончик) inside. The picture is very accurate also because the spacecraft was not designed to separate from the booster.

The USSR orbits second artificial satellite with dog Laika onboard

And the FDC

Check the date on the postage stamp: 20.12.1957 - only 65 years and 3 days ago

65 years and 3 days… Almost exactly the amount of time that mankind needed to get from the first powered flight (Wright Brothers - December 1903) to the far side of the Moon Apollo 8 - December 1968)

[Hemang]

Not actual space but – space related stamps from USA
STAR WARS droids

[echinopsiss]

60 Years since the First Manned Space Flight - carnet issued in 2021. in Serbia, with Roscosmos cooperation. On stamps are portaits of Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Valentina Tereshkova, on booklet Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

[karlos221]

Perfect! I am putting this to my “must have” list thank you

[karlos221]

ISSUE NO. 2 and 2b

To sort at least the czechoslovakian stamps chronologically, I need to ad one more issue. It is technically a space stamp, but more political one I would say. Anyway - there is the rocket and also the Moon, so it definitely belongs to this list

It was issued on 17th of April 1957 and it is focused on “sharing the political and scientific knowledge”

And the FDC

Artist : Němeček, Housa

the second stamp of the year depicting space exploration is from 23.9 1959. It shows the first probe that successfully reached the moon and crushed into it’s surface.

There is a time of the impact written on the stamps and also on the FDC

Artists: V. Polášek and L. Jirka

Luna 2

[Hemang]

Man in space from USA

[karlos221]

ISSUE NO. 3

The next czechoslovakian space set is dedicated to milestones in space exploration. It was issued in 1961 and it consists of 6 stamps.

In the first picture is “the mankind conquering the space”

The second stamp and the first of depicted space probes is Luna 1. It should reach the moon, but due to an upper stage of the rocket failure, it missed the moon and became the first artificial satellite of the Sun. Of course soviet union claimed that that was the goal and they renamed the probe “Dream”. Also it is the reason why in the picture, you can see Luna 1 and the Sun.

You can see, that the picture is also very accurate

Artist: Hudeček, Švencsbír

Luna 1

“The soviet interplanetary probe”. The Luna 3 is again very accurate painting and I like this stamp very much. Luna 3 was always my favorite probe.

Artists : Hudeček, Mráček

Luna 3

Sputnik 3 was the third soviet satellite. It’s goal was to conduct research of the upper levels of the atmosphere and the near earth space

Sputnik 3

Sputnik 3

Artists: Hudeček, Švencsbír

Also my favorite spacecraft, because I was able to build a paper model of it. The model was issued in ABC magazine

Next two stamps are depicting a rocket. The picture was used twice with only different colors. The first one is just “the launch of the space rocket” and the second one is "the launch of the space rocket to venus 12.2.1961, so the mission would be Venera 1

Venera 1

And the FDC’s

[karlos221]

ISSUE NO. 4

The next issue is a pair of two very similar stamps. It is the same motiv like the one that was used for the previous issue. It is probably because these two stamps were issued just one day after the Gagarin’s flight on 12.4.1961. Czechoslovakian post just used what was already available and could be Gagarin.

Artist: Hudeček, Jirka

And of course the FDC from my humble collection

[karlos221]

ISSUE NO. 5

After his historical flight, Gagarin traveled all over the world. 28.4.1961 he visited Czechoslovakia and czechoslovakian postal service was ready Almost two months after this event the set of two stamps was issued.

And the FDC

I also have the 20th anniversary postcard that was issued in Slovakia.

Artist : Bouda, Mráček, Švencsbír

[karlos221]

ISSUE NO. 6

26.3.1962 is another date that was important for space stamp collectors. This time the set consists of 6 interesting “sci-fi like” paintings.

The first is “the telecommunication satellite”

Artist : Hudeček, Mráček

The Second is a “multistage automatic rocket”

Third one represents the spacecraft Vostok 2, but at that time, there was no knowledge about the spacecraft look, so it is more the imagination of the artist probably inspired by some sketch from some foreign magazine.

The next one is “automatic station on the moon”
It is not based on a real thing, but I just like this stamp so much ( any moon lander is my favorite topic)

The fifth stamp represents “the launch of the soviet rocket”

And last but not least “the man conquers the space”

And the FDC’s

[karlos221]

ISSUE NO. 7

And yet again, this is the recycled picture of what should be the Vostok spacecraft. This time the stamps are depicting Vostok 5 (V. Bykovskyj) and Vostok 6 (V. Tereskovova) which was a simultaneous flight of two spacecrafts. Not a formation flight.
The portraits of cosmonauts were placed in the right corner.

Vostok 5

Vostok 6

And the FDC

[tangqiuning]

China Space Station

spacewalk

Space experiment

rocket

Shenzhou 15 successfully docked

The launch of Shenzhou 15 was successful

[sandhurst]

Here’s an envelope I sent today (that fits this theme) to an astrophysicist with two 26p space stamps from the ‘Above and Beyond’ millenium series issued by Royal Mail. The picture was cut from a magazine and obviously I’ve blurred out the address. I love stamps that depict stars and planets!

[tangqiuning]

[karlos221]

Thank you very much! This is exactly what I wanted. And now I only need to collect all these beautiful stamps and FDC’s. I already have some, but you surely understand that I need them all

[PenCake]

Here is one of the biggest minisheets I have

[Kahina86]

German stamps, 2019

[gea250]

These are the first stamps I ever purchased as a collection item rather than to only use on postcards - the absolutely gorgeous James Webb Space Telescope stamps. They were just released by the US postal service in September. The telescope was developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space agency. Very beautiful to see so many nations working together to learn more about our universe. Fun topic - looking forward to seeing more space stamps here!

[karlos221]

Thank you very much, another one that goes right to my wish list I have thousands of space stamps from the past, but just recently and thanks to the postcrossing I started collecting new issues as well.

[tangqiuning]