Apollo-Soyuz Space Mission

Finished mounting three more pages in my Space Stamp Collection last night. These are the first three pages for the Apollo-Soyuz Space mission.

Specific Sports in Olympic Games Collection

As I work to build the pages in my Olympic Games collection I've come to the place where I want to change how I do things to improve the appearance - again. Originally I divided my collection into three parts: "Founding of the Modern Olympic Games", "Summer Olympic Games", and "Winter Olympic Games".

I subdivided the "Founding of the Modern Olympic Games" into sections containing stamps that commemorate Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympics. Stamps that depict the role of art in the Olympics. Stamps that highlight the Olympic hymn and associated people. Stamps that depict the opening Parade of Nations. Those stamps that feature the Olympic Rings. Stamps highlighting the Olympic Flag. Those depicting the doves of peace that are released at the beginning of each games. Those stamps dealing with the Olympic Torch Relay and the Lighting of the Olympic Flame. And a very small section that has the stamps highlighting the Olympic Presidents. Essentially, this collection is all about those stamps that focus on the things related to the founding of the Modern Olympics.

The Winter and Summer Olympics were separate collections subdivided according to the Olympic Year. But I've merged those two collections into one that I call "International Olympic Games Highlights", still subdivided according to Olympic Year. The winter and summer games are still separate as the dates of the games are different.

Now here is where the big change comes. I decided to separate the stamps in each Olympic Year according to the sports depicted on the stamps. So instead of keeping a country "set" of Olympic stamps together, I will break them out into specific sports during that Olympic year.

Then I add a little bit of background of each sport at the top of the page for context and interest. If I have stamps depicting a specific athlete then I create a separate page for him or her within the sport and add some biographical information for interest.

I'm beginning to enjoy the look much better.

International Space Station

I just got my new latest stamp acquisition in the mail today! This sheet is so awesome! If you hold it in the light just right the stamps, which are holograms, show up in three-D! This is a really cool sheet. The title of my space collection is "From Kitty Hawk to the International Space Station".  So this stamp sheet is the first stamp in that section and puts the period at the end of my collection. Not the end of my collecting space stamps, but now I have stamps commemorating Kitty Hawk and the International Space Station.

John Glenn Becomes First American Astronaut To Orbit The Earth!

On February 20, 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. His spacecraft was named Friendship 7. Glenn made three orbits of the earth and was in space for four hours and fifty-six minutes.

Gemini Astronauts Honored on Jordanian Stamps

In 1965 Jordan issued a set of stamps to honor the Gemini Astronauts. The three flights were Gemini 6, 7, and 8.

Gemini 6 (December 15, 1965) - Thomas Stafford and Walter Schirra

Gemini 7 (December 4, 1965) - Frank Borman and James Lovell

Gemini 8 (March 16, 1966) - David Scott and Neil Armstrong

I really like these! A nice looking set of stamps!

Gemini 4

Tonight I decided it was time to wave our flag a little bit. So I made the page and mounted my stamps for the Gemini 4 flight on June 3, 1965. The highlight of which was the first American space walk by Edward H. White.

Vostok 3 & 4

And now, here is  Vostok 3 & 4...the Soviet Union's first attempt at a rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.

Vostok 2

And now here are the pages for Vostok 2.

Vostok 1

Thought I would share my latest project - my Vostok 1 stamp album pages that I just completed.

SPUTNIK - The Beginning of the Space Race

All right, I decided after posting several links to my Olympic Stamp Pages in my blog on the Stamp Collecting Facebook groups I'm in, I needed to start getting more active in my Space Exploration stamp collection. I haven't done anything with it in years!

So I pulled out my envelope full of space stamps and covers, and my stock albums with stock pages full of space stamps. I put together two or three pages with some stamps that obviously fit together. Then realized I had forgotten a few. Grrr.... I realized I needed to go through and sort all of my space stamps before I try mounting them on pages. Spent two full days doing that! Almost done...

Here is the result of some of my mounting of my space stamps. Cover page first!

In 1955 both the United States and the Soviet Union announced plans to launch artificial satellites. Then on October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. The satellite's function was to collect air density, temperature, cosmic radiation, and meteoroid data.

This stamp was issued on November 5, 1957 to commemorate the launch of Sputnik 1.

This stamp commemorates the 5th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1.

The stamp on the left was produced in 1963 to publish the Soviet Union's space achievements. The one on the right was issued in 1987 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Sputnik launches.

The whole page in my album looks like this:

The launching of the Sputnik satellites stunned the United States. Scientists and politicians wondered how America could have fallen so far behind the Soviets in astronautics.

This souvenir sheet was issued to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1.

On November 3, 1957 the Soviets launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2. It carried a dog named Laika, the first animal to soar into outer space. The satellite's function was to collect biomedical, cosmic radiation, solar x-ray, and ultraviolet data.

This stamp was issued on December 28th, 1957 after the launch of Sputnik 2. The design was the same as the November 5th issue but different in color and larger in size.

 

This set of four stamps with the design of a symbolic figure greeting the return of Sputnik 2 to earth were issued on November 3, 1957.

The page in my album:

Then Sputnik 3 was launched on May 15, 1958 and was an orbiting geophysical space laboratory.

The label on this stamp give details of the launch.

Sputnik 4 was launched on May 15, 1960 and carried an artificial cosmonaut.

Then on August 19, 1960 Sputnik 5 was launched carrying two dongs, Belka and Strelka. They orbited the earth for two days. These two stamps, and the postcard were issued to commemorate their flight.

And, the page in my album:

Sputnik 8 was launched as an interplanetary space probe to Venus. It was launched on February 12, 1961.

Sputnik 9 launched on March 8, 1961 again carrying a dog, named Chermushka

On March 25, 1961 Sputnik 10 was launched, again carrying a dog, named Zvezdochka.

Album page:

Fun With Philatelic Material - Olympic Gold Medalist to Tarzan!

Sometimes it's fun when I run across philatelic materials that illustrate part of my collection where the subject takes a strange twist. Such was the case with the stamp from the Isle of Man that commemorated Johnny Weismeuller's Olympic achievements in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games.

I never new he was an Olympic gold medalist! I knew about him since I was a little boy because my father loved to watch him in his Tarzan movies late at night. He and I would sit together in the dark and watch late into the night on Saturday. Weismeuller's parents were from Banat, Yugoslavia where my father was raised.

Later I found this First Day Cover issued in Romania in 2004 to commemorate his achievements.

Johnny Weismeuller was born June 2, 1904 as an ethnic German, the elder son of Peter and Elisabeth, both Banat Swabians. His generally accepted birthplace is in Freiodorf, Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

At the age of 9 Johnny contracted polio and at the suggestion of his doctor, took up swimming to help battle the disease. Weismeuller was swimming's first superstar; swimming the 100m freestyle and the 4x200m relay team event at both the 1924 Paris and 1928 Amsterdam Games. He also won gold in the 400m freestyle.

On the cache, postmark, and stamp, this FDC Romania commemorated his Olympic achievements as well as his transition to the Tarzan roles in multiple Hollywood films.

The following postcards were also issued with caches from various Tarzan movie posters.