Stamp Profile

Priority Mail Stamp Marks Moon Landing Milestone

U.S.A.

Issue Date: 20/07/1989

Design by Chris Calle, son of original Moon Landing stamp artist.

The stamp, which features two men planting the Stars and Stripes on the lunar surface, enjoys a legacy of its own. The designer, Christopher Calle, is the son of Paul Calle, the veteran illustrator who produced the first Moon Landing tribute (Scott C76). First issued on September 9, 1969, that 10cent airmail stamp was to become one of the most popular and recognizable postage stamps ever issued.

At the time he developed the design, the senior Calle was a longstanding member of the NASA Fine Arts Program, capturing on canvas the drama and excitement of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

He was the only artist present with the Apollo 11 crewmembers on the morning of their historic voyage. (The original director of the NASA Fine Arts Program, James Dean, now serves as a design coordinator for the U.S. Postal Service's Citizens' Stamp Committee).

Like the memorable work his father created for the 1969 stamp, Christopher Calle's original mixed media design is based on NASA photographs of astronauts practicing various maneuvers before the actual flight.

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STAMPIN' THE FUTUURE

Singapore

Issue Date: 20/10/2000

As the world celebrates the dawn of a new millennium, there is probably no better way to look into the future than through the eyes, hearts and minds of our children. They dream of more sophisticated science and technology that shape our future lifestyles, our quest for peace and harmony and the need for more efficient use of our world's valuable resources. Theirs is a dream of a bright and peaceful, progressive and harmonious future.
 
Singapore Post joined in a worldwide youth stamp design project inviting children from age groups 8 to 12 years old to express their visions of the future on drawings in 1998. Twenty- seven countries participated in this project. Each country conducted its own youth stamp design contest and jointly issue the stamps featuring their respective winning drawings in 2000.
 
Singapore's contest was aimed at cultivating the creativity and learning of children. The four winning drawings by Gwendolyn Soh, Dawn Koh, Shaun Yew Chuan Bin and Liu Jiang Wen were adapted into a set of four stamp designs. Gwendolyn drew "a boy playing games on a computer with a robot serving food" to show Home Automation. Dawn drew the Floating Cities with space ships, buildings and flying bus, she believes that "buses will be able to fly and space ships will be a common sight in the air". Shaun thinks that there would not be enough space on Earth to build anymore cities. He drew cities suspended in space to depict Future Homes. Jiang Wen shares similar view that people will live in space. He depicts the new age infrastructure that will be used in the new millennium for his drawing on Future Lifestyles.

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Joint Satellite Recovery Survey Mission

Pitcairn Island

Issue Date: 07/07/2000

The sheetlet to celebrate the Pitcairn and United States Air Force Joint Satellite Recovery Survey Mission to Henderson Island is released on 7 July to mark the opening of the World Stamp Expo at Anaheim, Los Angeles where we will be operating a booth. The Expo is centred on the theme of Space Exploration and Travel, a topic, which has some significance to Pitcairn. Initially we intended taking a Millennium Part III stamp and developing it into a sheetlet for the exhibition, which is why both of these issue have the same date of issue.

It was Garth Harraway, Pitcairn's former Commissioner who prompted us to search the archives for reference material on the 1966 survey conducted by the United States Air Force. Dusting off the archived files, we found one marked 'Secret'. The file contained a report which described the purpose of the mission. The US Satellite Launching site was moved from Florida to Vandenburg airbase, just north of Los Angeles, from which satellites could be launched on a trajectory to directly cross the South Pole, without over-flying any landmass. The Pitcairn Islands lie within a few hundred miles of the crucial point at which any launch may fail when a satellite would attempt to break through the earth's atmosphere. Uninhabited Henderson Island was identified as an ideal site for an airbase whose function would be the recovery of satellite "whether manned or not".
 
The survey was completed and by personnel of the United States Air Force with assistance from the Pitcairn Islanders. The USNS Sunnyvale a satellite recovery vessel, was the mission support vessel. Although the survey was completed and plans drawn, the proposed airstrip failed to gain support at a higher level and the project was abandoned.
 
The 'Secret' file revealed a map showing the plans for the airfield and an album of black and white photographs of the survey team in action with some tremendous aerial shots of the unusual coral pinnacles, a distinctive feature of the Henderson Island landscape. The map is reproduced on the First Day Cover of this issue and the photographs provided the artist with a wonderful reference for his design.
 
In 1988, Henderson Island was declared a World Heritage Site. Today it is visited by just a few cruise vessels and yachts and the Pitcairners still make regular visits to collect Miro wood to carve into souvenirs which are sold to tourists.
 
Another feature of the sheetlet, is the Inmarsat satellite. It is through this satellite that Pitcairner communicate by voice or fax. Inmarsat A and Inmarsat M communications systems are both used on Pitcairn today.

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World Stamp Expo 2000 USA. "Achievements and Future in Space"

Netherlands Antilles

Issue Date: 21/06/2000

Space exploration as we know it today started in the 6th decade of the 20th century. Since then, there have been many activities: from robot probes hurled into space, rocket engines, to human beings venturing beyond the limits of earth's atmosphere and landing on the moon. Probes have since those early days gone on to explore the far realms of the solar system and beyond.

The 75 cent stamp shows a space shuttle, symbolic for all space shuttles launched since the first in 1981, Columbia. The U.S. Space Shuttle is a reusable spacecraft designed to be launched into orbit by rockets and then return to the earth's surface by gliding down and landing on a runway. The space shuttle, planned as a replacement for expensive expendable booster rockets, would complete NASA's new Space Transportation System. This stamp is homage to all the brave men and women, who venture into space to, find new horizons for humankind.

Both the 225 cent stamp and the souvenir sheet (which also has a 225 cent stamp) depict a futuristic view of space colonisation. Space exploration has always tickled human curiosity. Today it includes the investigation of a wide range of celestial objects, from cosmic dust to the planets of the solar system and the sun itself. Many space flight theorists have explored the concept of large habitats on a different planet, hosting hundreds or thousands of inhabitants in the 20th century. The term `space station' usually denotes a permanent inhabitable base that orbits the Earth or perhaps in the future, another planet. They have long been envisioned as bases for scientific research, facilities for manufacturing and as locales for large human colonies. On the souvenir sheet one can see the artist's interpretation of what a space station could look like.

 

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