Stamp Profile

Europe in Space 1991

Finland

Issue Date: 07/06/1991

Posts and Telecommunications of Finland commemorated the Europa '91, theme of Europe in Space on the 7th June 1991 with the issue of two special stamps, with the values FIM 2.10 and FIM 2.90. Tarja Salonen designed the stamps as her training assignment at Lahti Design Institute. She also designed a First Day Cover. In the stamp design newest computer technology was employed.

Both stamps depict the map of Europe in the background and the word 'Europa' forming a clock face surrounded by circular beams. In the FIM 2.10 stamp human figures are stepping out of the map, and in the FIM 2.90 stamp communications satellites and telescopes replace the human figures. 

25 year old Tarja Salonen describes her work as "each of the stamps has a theme of its own. One of the stamps deals with intellectual co-operation between humans, whereas the other one's motif is more technical. In them the quest for knowledge reaches beyond European borders and beyond the earth, towards space".

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25th anniversary US manned space flights

Ascension

Issue Date: 30/03/1987

Designer David Hartley

The first liquid-fuel rocket flight in modern times lasted 2.5 seconds. The distance travelled was 40 ft. Robert Goddard, who masterminded the project could hardly have imagined that within forty years mighty Atlas, Titan and Saturn rockets would be capable of taking men and machinery into space and even to the moon.

Germany's grasp of rocket technology was apparent during the Second World War with the advent of the formidable V1 and V2 weapons. They were to provide the starting point for both American and Russian research in the late 40s and 50s. (Teams of German scientists had chosen to work for both sides).

The Russians scored an historic triumph in the so-called 'Space Race' when in April 1961 they succeeded in putting Yuri Gagarin into space for the first manned flight. At this stage America was able to boast the achievements of chimponauts 'Ham' and 'Miss Sam'.

President Kennedy, searching for an adequate response was to commit America to the first moon landing: an 'exciting, impressive, difficult and expensive' venture to achieve. Later in the year Titov on Vostok 2 made 17 orbits of the earth.

On the American side Alan Shepard made a first little 'hop' into space but then after nine months or so of frantic activity NASA was ready for John Glenn to ride Mercury Mission MAG. It was absolutely vital for national prestige that Glenn succeeds. On 20 February an Atlas rocket put 'Friendship 7' (as the capsule was called) into space in a few minutes. Separating from the rocket, America's first orbiting astronaut settled down to controlling his capsule. The plan was for Glenn to circle the earth three times.

 

On the second orbit a signal was picked up indicating that the landing bag and aft heat shield had been damaged and would probably be torn off whilst entering the atmosphere. With a re-entry temperature of around 3000 0 F Glenn and Friendship 7 would be incinerated without complete protection. Ground control advised Glenn to check the switch and ensure that when it was time to fire the retro-rockets to come home, that the retropack be left on, thereby holding the aft-shield in place. By the time that it had burnt away atmospheric pressure would hold the shield down.

Glenn reported chunks of pack hurtling by but was kept in the dark about Cape Canaveral's worst fears. Upon splashdown a helicopter picked up John Glenn from USS Noa.

Astronaut John Glenn got a hero's welcome, a ticker-tape parade in New York and undertook a global tour to advertise American technology.

Released on 30 March 1987 was a set of five stamps commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the First American Earth Orbit. Designed by David Hartley, the designs are: l5p -Ignition, 18p - Lift-off, 25p - Re-entry, £1 - Splash Down, 70p - "Friendship 7" Capsule - This souvenir sheet also bears Flight Data and The Earth, showing locations of Blast-Off and Splashdown.

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Astrophysics Stamps

Sweden

Issue Date:

The 1987 Nobel issue honoured six Nobel Laureates who made important discoveries in the field of astrophysics. The first stamp featured the pulsars discovered by Antony Hewish in 1967. The pulses come from the radiation emitted by charged particles circling around neutron stars. The second stamp shows the Chandrasekhar mass. The greatest mass a white dwarf star can have. If the mass increases, the star collapses into a neutron star or a black hole.

William Fowler has studied the nuclear reactions vital for the formation of chemical elements In the Universe. The third stamp illustrates the construction of heavy atom nuclei: neutrons merge with slightly lighter nuclei, It is this chemical element synthesis which has made life possible,

The fourth stamp honours Penzias and Wilson who discovered the so called cosmic background radiation resulting from the 'big Bang' theory of the creation of the Universe. Martin Ryle developed the aperture synthesis method using several coordinated telescopes in order to get the same result as with just one very big telescope. The method is symbolised in the last stamp by two radio telescopes simultaneously receiving radio waves from a galaxy. (Article kindly supplied by the Swedish Post Office.)

 

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UN International Year for Space

Malawi

Issue Date: 07/12/1992

The diameter of the planet Saturn is 74,977 miles. Its distance from the sun is a staggering 886.7 x 10° miles. However despite the fact that it has a volume 815 times that of the earth, Saturn's mass is only 95.2 times greater. It's not very warm there; round about - 150 0 C on a good day. Any potential visitors should not forget their thermals!

 

However29/08/06 a challenge. The rocky core of the planet is only about twice the size of the Earth; the rest of Saturn's volume is made up of layers of hydrogen, helium, ammonia and water ice clouds, ammonium hydrosulphide clouds, ammonia and a general icy haze. It is the only planet in the immediate solar system that is, overall, lighter than water!

 

The spacecraft Voyager II arrived at Saturn in the summer of 1981, 62,760 miles from the cloud tops. Unfortunately its scan platform was jammed. After 67 hours of testing it began to respond and although some of the observation programme was lost. 18,500 pictures of the planet were successfully transmitted. These enabled scientists to deduce a great deal of hitherto undiscovered information about Saturn and its spectacular rings.

Voyager II and Saturn are featured on the 20t value of Malawi's UN International Year of Space issue released on 7 December 1992.

The earth, sun and planets are all part of the Milky Way galaxy, an island universe of about 100 billion stars, basically elliptical in shape. There are countless galaxies, which have been classified by the astronomer Hubble into various shapes; elliptical, disc, with and without spiral arm... a bewildering prospect for the new stargazer. Very often, it seems, that the oldest and largest red stars are grouped in the centre of a galaxy and this vista has been depicted on the 75t design.

The other two stamps show: 95t - Kanjedza II (Satellite Station) and K2 - Communication Satellite. Tony Theobald has designed the stamps, which are printed in lithography by Cartor SA of France.

 

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