A visible-light image of the Andromeda Galaxy, taken by Torben Hansen.
CC Torben Hansen

Space Achievement Commemorative Issue 'Exploring the Moon' First Day Cover

Space Achievement Commemorative Issue 'Exploring the Moon' First Day Cover

Commonly known as First Day Covers, these presentation envelopes or postcards are highly collectable for philatelists – people who study stamps. The Space Achievement first day cover was issued at Kennedy Space Center on 21st May 1981, shortly after the first launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

The stamp was part of a block of eight, released to celebrate the achievements made by the United States in the field of space exploration. The central four stamps depict the shuttle in various stages of a mission. The outer stamps show man walking on the Moon, Skylab, the Pioneer spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope. The Moon Walker stamp on this first day cover comes from the top left of the block of eight stamps.

The stamps were designed by Robert T. McCall, who was a renowned space artist. He had a strong relationship with NASA and also designed several mission patches.

More information

Object number

2017-6

Location

Artefact Store

Has this object been into space?

No

Dimension - Dimension, Value, Measurement unit

Length: 16.5cm
Width: 9.2cm

Material

Paper
ink

Object Production Date

21/05/1981

Object Production Organisation

ArtCraft

Object Production Place

Kennedy Space Center
United States

Object Production Person

Robert T. McCall

On Display Status

Not on display

Copyright and Photos

Photography is shared via the license below.

However, some objects on this website are on loan to the National Space Centre and are being shared through the permission of their owners.

Commercial use of images from this website is not allowed without additional permissions being granted. To request permission to use images for purposes not covered in the license below, please contact [email protected]

Individual objects on loan to the National Space Centre may have additional copyright permissions, so advice should always be sought before use.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.