Stamp Profile

The first Successful Test Flight of China's "Shenzhou" Spaceship

China-Peoples Republic

Issue Date: 20/11/2000

State Post Bureau issued a set of two stamps on November 20, 2000, to commemorate the successful test flight of China'29/08/06ace value of 1.60 RMB. The titles of the stamps are "Soaring Rocket" and "Roaming the Outerspace. "
 
On November 20, 1999, China President successfully launched its first experimental manned spaceship. Both the spaceship and the carrier rocket were designed and manufactured by China. President Jiang Zemin, who is also secretary-general of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, named the spaceship "ShenZhou". The spaceship flew 21 hours around the earth, after it completed the missions including space environment monitoring, material and life science experiments etc.

It successfully reentried and landed at predicted spot. The success marked a step forward for China's peaceful utilization of the outer space and set anther milestone in the country's space history. The stamps are issued for the first anniversary of ShenZhou's successful test flight.

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Youth Care stamps 2000

Netherlands Antilles

Issue Date: 20/05/2000

The 40 cent stamp with a 15 cent surcharge shows a child who is trying to make contact with the universe and ends up all the way with the stars and the moon.

The 75 cent stamp with a 25 cent surcharge also seeks out space. Here we see children taking to space via the Internet. For with this international network all computer users can interconnect. If there is one thing that daily increasingly occupies both the older and the younger generations, it is the Internet. And the expectations are that the use of the Internet and of all its existing and still to be invented possibilities will keep our youth even more enthralled than the older generations among us. The internet is one of the means that make the borders in our world fade away. And it is not only Europe that is thriving for integration. Globalization is noticeable all over the world.

 

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Space

Australia

Issue Date: 03/10/2000

The Space themed stamps present a view of life on Mars in the not too distant future. The design shows the human face of space exploration with a fantasy, grounded in reality.
 
 The six stamps in the issue (45c) and miniature sheet are: Launch site and Spacecraft (large definitive size), Astronaut and Terrain (commemorative size) and Flight crew and Robots (small definitive size). First day covers (s/a and gummed), a sticker book, stamp pack, collector pack, and maximum cards (six) and postcards (six) make up the issue. A new Stamp Collecting Starter Kit with the theme of space, will also be released.

 

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SPACE ACHIEVEMENT and EXPLORATION

United States of America

Issue Date: 07/07/2000

The nation's first hologram, circular and pentagonal U.S. postage stamps will be issued next month when the U.S. Postal Service hosts World Stamp Expo 2000, its first international philatelic exhibition since 1989.
 
The Space Achievement and Exploration circular hologram stamp opens the show July 7 at a 10 a.m. first day of issue ceremony. This Express Mail rate ($11.75) stamp features a hologram of Earth, based on images supplied by NASA.
 
On July 8 a second hologram stamp will be issued at a noon first day ceremony. The $11.75 Landing on the Moon stamp features a hologram of a lunar lander, based on computer images and a three-dimensional model from NASA. The stamp is part of a larger souvenir sheet depicting a photograph of astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., taken by astronaut John W. Young during the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972.
 
The Escaping the Gravity of Earth hologram stamps will be issued July 9 at noon. These two Priority Mail rate ($3.20) stamps feature holograms of the International Space Station. The first hologram is based on a computer generated NASA image. The second hologram is based on a NASA artist's conception of the station. The photograph appearing on the souvenir sheet is of astronauts David Leestma and Kathryn Sullivan in the cargo bay of the "Challenger" space shuttle during an October 1984 mission.
 
At noon on the fourth day of World Stamp Expo, six Probing the Vastness of Space stamps will be issued. These 60-cent international rate stamps depict an illustration of the Hubble Space Telescope and photographs of the Radio Interferometer (the National Science Foundation's "Very Large Array" on the Plains of San Agustin, west of Socorro, in New Mexico), twin 10-meter optical and infrared telescopes (Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii), optical telescopes (NSF's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, east of La Serena, Chile), 100-inch optical telescope (Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, Calif.) and a 305-meter radio telescope (NSF's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico). The souvenir sheet pictures a digitally enhanced image from the Hubble Space Telescope, depicting the stellar nursery known as the Eagle Nebula.
 
July 11 marks the first day for five Exploring the Solar System stamps, the first pentagonally shaped stamps in U.S. history. These $1 stamps present the following views of the sun: an image of a solar eclipse from a satellite, an illustrated cutaway view, a digitally restored NASA image of sunrise from space, an image of a solar eruption taken by Skylab on Dec. 19, 1973, and a photo from Earth of the sun in a partly cloudy sky. The souvenir sheet depicts a montage of Saturn and several of its moons, imaged by Voyager 1 in November 1980.
 
Also on July 11, the Postal Service will issue the Space Achievement and Exploration stamps uncut press sheet, which is an interesting collectible that includes all five souvenir sheets, presented as they would emerge from the printing press.

 

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