Project Mercury [First Day of Issue Postcard]
New Concord. OH: United States Postal Service, 1962. Presumed one of multiple originals issued, uniquely signed. Post Card with illustration on one side and stamp and writing space on the other side. Format is approximately 6.375 inches by 3.5 inches. RARE TRIPLE SIGNED POSTCARD. One side is fully illustrated, stating New Concord, Ohio Home of John H. Glenn, Jr. Lt Col USMC with images of the Mercury - Atlas blasting off, Lt. Col. Glenn in the space helmet; the outline of Ohio with an arrow pointing to the location of New Concord, an image of the globe with three orbital tracks, and an image of the space capsule in the water with the recovery vessel, the USS Noah, a destroyer, approaching it. This side is signed between his name in red letters and the outline of Ohio by J. H. Glenn Jr. The other side has the 4 cent Project Mercury stamp canceled with a stamp saying Home of Astronaut Glenn. This was issued in New Concord, Ohio on June 7, 1962 at 2 p.m. There is an address sticker for the recipient on the bottom right side. On the left side are the signatures of John H. Glenn Sr and Clara Glenn, the astronaut's parents!!! Astronaut Glenn returned to his home town and was given a welcoming parade on March 3, 1962, so this first day of issuance of this specially illustrated postcard was several months after his initial return to his home town and also several months after the February 20, 1962 first day of issue cover of the Project Mercury stamp from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Research up to the time of cataloguing this item has failed to identify any other items triple signed by Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr and his father John H. Glenn, Sr. and his mother Clara Glenn. This may be a unique surviving artifact. John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American aviator in the United States Marine Corps, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. After retiring from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio. Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, Chinese Civil War and Korean War. He shot down three MiG-15s, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. He was one of the Mercury Seven, military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the nation's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. He received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1962, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Aged 77, Glenn flew on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission, making him the oldest person to enter Earth orbit, and the only person to fly in both the Mercury and the Space Shuttle programs. Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on February 20, 1962, was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal. The Post Office Department honored this first orbital flight of a United States astronaut on February 20, 1962, when it released the Project Mercury commemorative stamp, placed on sale throughout the country at the exact hour Colonel John Glenn's historic flight officially had returned to Earth safely. In case the mission failed or was canceled, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing kept word about the new press and the stamp issue's production a secret. The stamps, waiting at post offices around the U.S., were sealed and marked "Top Secret". Only after Glenn's trip were the postmasters allowed to open the packages and see what was inside. Right after Glenn's safe return, the Post Office released the Project Mercury stamp. It became the first U.S. commemorative stamp issued nearly at the same time as the event occurred, and was released the exact hour the flight was officially completed. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Philately, First Day of Issue, Astronaut, Project Mercury, Postcard, New Concord, Ohio, John Glenn, USMC, Marine Corps, USS Noah, Mercury-Atlas Rocket, Orbital Flight, Spaceflight, Space Flight
[Book #83979]
Price: $1,500.00