THE ROCKET MAIL PAGE, PART 2
By Paul A. Roales
Updated: June 30, 2009 Return to the opening Rocket Mail page here.
NEWS
(Added June 30, 2009) LOTS OF LAUNCHES AND A SIGNING.
By Paul A. Roales and Others.
ITEM 1: THE SIGNING OF 2005 MANNED ROCKET MAIL.
I attended the 2009 Biplane Expo in Bartlesville, OK on June 5th. The guest of Honor was Dick Rutan. Back in Dec., 2005 Dick Rutan flew a XCOR EZ-Rocket from Mojave, CA to California City, CA and he carried some mail. I designed 2 postcards to be flown on that flight and later purchases an envelope designed by another collector which was also flown on that flight. So I took the opportunity to get pilot Dick Rutan to sign the 2 items still in my collection. On the left is a picture of me with Dick and the newly signed items are shown above.
ITEM 2: A GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE LAUNCH MARCH 23.
Here is the message I received from Miri Matejka: "The GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE launched on March 23, 2009 the rocket AUSTRO EXPERIMENTAL at Gaissau (AUSTRIA) with covers commemorating the 5oth anniversary of the satellite-launches
Discoverer-1 and Vanguard-2. The covers are attached. From each cover only 100 exist in various types. Like always they will be sold soon on ebay only."
These covers are shown first below.
ITEM 3: ANOTHER GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE LAUNCH MAY 9.
Quickly on the heals of the above, I got this email: "On May 9, 2009 we launched a rocket at "Cape Kaltbrunn" (Switzerland) with rocket-mail covers from our national exhibition Marke&Münze 2009 ( Stamp&Coin 2009 ) at GRAZ (Austria).
We invited the main crew from Soyuz26/28 with their wives for a holiday week to Styria. The week included press conference, signature hour, foto session aso. The exhibition was a full success, we had many youngsters there. All in all we made 300 rocket mail covers, which were signed by the present cosmonauts Georgi GRETCHKO -first space postmaster, Vladimir REMEK ( first Interkosmos cosmonaut), Juri Romanenko - and flown with our rocket on May 9, 2009 also. Attached you will find some photos. Covers will be sold on Ebay in September 2009."
Two examples from this lot are shown second below.
REMINDER
This page depends upon your information to prosper. Please contact me if you have any rocket mail information or news.
(Added May 31, 2009) LOTS OF LAUNCHES
By Paul A. Roales and Others.
ITEM 1: GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE LAUNCH IN AUSTRIA
On May 6 I heard from Miri Matejka about GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE's latest launch. He said: "On the occasion of 50 years first moon-sattelite LUNA-1 the GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE launched the rocket "AUSTRO EXPERIMENTAL" on February 6, 2009 at Gaissau (Austria) with covers, cancelled with a special picture postmark which equals the date of 50 years ago when the event took place. Total 300 envelopes with different stamps, some in registered mail. All covers were gone through postal cannels with arrival postmark. As usual some were sold by eBay. This year we plan to launch a lot of covers by rockets. We will inform you by time."
Two of the varities are shown below.
ITEM 2: THE FIRST PUFFIN ISLAND LAUNCH OF THE YEAR
I received the rocket mail postcard below in the mail from England earlier this month (Thanks Darin). It was one of 20 postcards flown on May 12th. It marks the first test firing of their new JZ-V Mk. 4 rocket. Darin will begin his regular monthly rocket mail service from Puffin Island to the English mainland in June. He will fly up to 20g. for 2 Pounds. He may be contacted at: Darin Jackson, 13 Bentworth Court, Granby Street, Bethnal Green, London E2 6DN, Uk.
ITEM 3: A LAUNCH IN MISSOURI
On May 16 Sandy Warwick flew 9 postcards and 1 cover in a rocket mail flight in Bernie, Missouri. She flew 1 "Apollo/Soyuez" cover from 1975, and 9 postcards of 2 varaties(6 of one, 3 of the other). The postcards were originally created by the Tulsa Postcard Club. The two varities of postcards are shown below. Notice the top one has a pellet hole on the top edge. The rocket landed in a tree and was shot out of the tree with a shotgun. Several of the postcards recieved bullet holes.
(Added May 1, 2009) RELATED ITEMS
By Paul A. Roales
ITEM 1: JULY/AUGUST ASTROPHILE
The July-August issue of the ASTROPHILE contains my article on "Mailgrams: An Early Space Mail" on p. 182. That is the only rocket mail item in the issue.
ITEM 2: ROCKET MAIL SOCIETY FOLDER
I picked up a rocket mail related item on ebay recently. On the front cover it states it is an "Official Commemorative Folder" from the 1964 Interpex Stamp Show in NY in 1964. It even has the official postal cancellation from the show. The inside points out various anniversaries from 1964 dealing with rocket mail. But the back cover (not shown because the text is small) says: "1954 - Fifteenth Anniversary - Rocket Mail Society- 1969. Celebrated By Man's First Moon Landing". So I am thinking the 1964 folder was re-issued in 1969 on another 5 year anniversary. An interesting piece. The front cover and insides are shown below. The original is 5.75x8.75" folded.
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Page and all contents copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 by Paul A. Roales