Project Mercury [First Day of Issue Cover]
Cape Canaveral, Florida: United States Postal Service, 1962. Presumed one of multiple originals issued, uniquely signed. Envelope. Format is approximately 6.5 inches by 3.75 inches. This was issued in Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 20 1962 at 3:30 p.m. This is signed by J H Glenn Jr. on the upper left corner. This envelope may be unique and it certainly is RARE, in that is does not have the graphic and text in color on the left side showing Astronaut Glenn in his space helmet and the Mercury-Atlas rocket lifting off with day of launch and first day of issue text. The left side is unadorned (that is blank). John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was a U. S. Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, 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. Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, 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. 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 #83980]
Price: $1,000.00