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Variety and Colour I am particularly pleased with this edition for the above reasons with articles from guest and member contributors from several countries. Our cover story relates to a superb article by Dutchman John Beenen. I have been wishing to run an article on Einstein for a long time and this one is of the highest calibre, beautifully illustrated with stamps. You’ll then find a four page presentation of the Europa 1991 issues two pages of which appear in colour. This innovation is possible because we now have a colour photocopier at school, which has reduced the price of colour copies compared with previous sources by 75% and therefore is much more affordable. I hope to use colour within the journal now on a regular basis. The shuttle review has been reduced in size as in the early and mid 90s there were so many flights it began to look as if I could never finish it. You’ll then find two superb items of astrophilatelic scholarship relating to Soviet postal stationery from U.S. member Jim Reichman and two further unusual items from American contributors. I am also pleased to be able to reprise an article on “Balloons and Dirigibles” I came across in Topical Time. The edition is completed with other items from regular contributors like Bert van Eijck and with three pages of Readers Respond, including some very interesting shuttle cover illustrations from our Bristol based Ken Woods, of whom more in our next edition.

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE

STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 73 April 2007

Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

COMMITTEE Chair :

Margaret Morris, 55 Canniesburn Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 1RX (E-mail: MMorris671@aol.com)

Hon. Secretary: Brian J.Lockyer, 21, Exford Close,Weston-Super-Mare,

Somerset BS23 4RE

(E-mail : bjlockyer.spacestamps@virgin.net)

Compiler of Checklist / Hon Treasurer / Postal Packet Organiser

Harvey Duncan,16, Begg Avenue, Falkirk, Scotland FK1 5DL (E-mail: harvey.duncan@lineone.net)

Orbit : Editor Jeff Dugdale, c/o Elgin High School, Elgin, Moray.

Scotland IV30 6UD (E-mail: jefforbited@aol.com)

Orbit: Features Editor

John Berry, 4 Chilterns, S.Hatfield, Herts AL10 8JU (E-mail: diane@berry11.freeserve.co.uk)

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Great Yarmouth. NR31 8SL.

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Australia: Charles Bromser, 37 Bridport Street, Melbourne 3205. Germany:Jurgen P. Esders, An der Apostelkirche 10, 10783 Berlin

Eire:Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Rd, Walkinstown. Dublin 12. France: Jean-Louis Lafon, 23 Rue de Mercantour, 78310 Maurepas

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Life Members: UK - Harvey Duncan, George Spiteri, Ian Ridpath, Margaret Morris, Michael Packham, Dr W.R. Withey, Paul Uppington, Jillian Wood.

Derek Clarke (Eire,) Charles Bromser (Australia,) Tom Baughn (U.S.A.,) Ross Smith (Australia,)

Vincent Leung Wing Sing (Hong Kong.) Mohammed K.Safdar (Saudi Arabia)

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What Einstein Did For Us Albert Einstein (1879-1955) by John Beenen

100 years: theory of relativity (1905-2005) Curiously in his youth there were very few signs that at the turn of the millennium Albert Einstein would be honoured as “Man of the Century” (Comores 10100 CET 1, Bhutan 2001, Guinee Rep. 10100 GUI 22/39C, Karelia 10100 CLI 17/28C, Madagascar 10100 MAD 1/4, Mongolia 10100 MON 1/9C). Einstein was born on the 14th March 1879 at Ulm, Württemberg, Southern Germany. His education started around1886 in Munich. Also at this time he started to play the violin, which he studied from his sixth to his thirteenth and later on in his life he was a good violin player. (See stamps from Togo 1979, and Mongolia LOL 10100 MON 1/9C above) His father and mother, Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch gave him a Jewish education but not a very orthodox one. Albert had one sister, Maja. In 1888 he continued his education at the Luitpold Gymnasium, where he showed interest especially in mathematics, particularly algebra. However, this is not to say that he excelled. As the matter of fact Albert was an unremarkable individual at this point in his life. During that period Albert’s parents moved to Milan, but Albert preferred to stay in Munich. In 1895 he attempted the entrance examination for the “Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule” at Zürich but was rejected. Aged seventeen he finished High School at Aarau, Switzerland, During that time he lived in the house of Jost Winkeler, the headmaster, who became his lifelong friend and whose son, Paul, was to marry Albert’s sister, Maja. In 1896 he gave up his German citizenship and his Jewish religion and became stateless for a couple of years. He registered at the Polytechnic School at Zürich and started training as a Maths teacher. Because he was anything but a diligent pupil he only just passed his final exam and did so only because his friend, later a professor in mathematics, Marcel Grossmann, helped him. During this time Einstein met fellow student, Mileva Maric, born in Hungary, with whom, although against the will of his mother, he was to marry on the sixth of January 1903 (See stamps depicting the young Einstein: from Tchad LOL 9780 TCH 1, and St.Vincent/ Grenadines 2000).

As Einstein was rather awkward to deal with and a loner, he found it quite difficult to find a job. After his rejection from military service in February 1901 he obtained Swiss citizenship. In January 1902 – whilst he was still unmarried – his daughter, Lieserl, was born. Presumably she was given up to adoption, as nothing of her is known since. Later on the couple had two sons, Hans Albert (1904) and Eduard (1910), the latter being mentally handicapped. Finding work was still difficult and again only with help (from Marcel Grossmann (1878-1936)), did Einstein find a job at the Patent Office at Bern, where he was to stay for seven years during which period he was promoted to “technical expert second class”. In 1905 at the University of Zürich he produced a theoretical dissertation about the size of molecules and published three articles on theoretical physics (see Mongolia 10100 MON 1/9C, Ireland 2000). The first was about Brownian Motion where he made important predictions about the movement of particles evenly divided within a liquid.

E = hv ………. E = MC² A second article about photoelectric effects contained a revolutionary hypothesis about the nature of light. Not only did Einstein state that under certain conditions light may be considered as consisting of particles, but that the energy carried by any light particle - ‘a photon’ - is proportional to the frequency of the radiation or in formula: E = h. v, in which ‘E’ is the radiation energy, ‘v’ the frequency of the radiation and ‘h’ a constant known as “Planck’s constant” (6,624x10-27 erg-sec) . This assumption that the energy of a light ray is built up from separate units or quanta clashed with the long existing theory that light was considered as a continuity. Einstein’s third article ‘On the electrodynamics of moving bodies’ contained a special theory regarding relativity, later on better known as his Special Theory of Relativity. In 1905 Einstein showed that mass and energy are equivalent, eventually resulting in the well-known formula: E = Mc2. To the delight of.Einstein a wit produced this limerick: While pond´ring the nature of light A German had sudden insight For Einstein declared That E´s m c squared The one formula most can recite

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Other such references can be found on the web (www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000206.html) Einstein started from two principles:

1. It is impossible to establish an uniform movement with respect to ether.

2. In all cases of a wave movement the speed of propagation is independent of the speed of the origin of the wave movement.

The first principle may become clear when we imagine that in the universe there are no marks to which we can refer. Apparently we stand still. The second axiom can be explained when we imagine somebody throwing a stone in a forward direction from a moving train. Seen from outside the speed of the stone is the sum of the speed of the train and that of the stone. When the train runs faster also the stone seems to go faster even when thrown with the same force. All movement also is relative. Hence, we cannot speak of an absolute movement but only from movements with respect to something else. Staying on earth this does not play a role as we always may refer to something. But in space speed as such has no meaning anymore. Further, Einstein states that the speed of light with respect to the observer always is a constant being 300.000 km/sec or more exact: 299.792.458 meter/sec, about one milliard km/hour. This holds for the speed in a vacuum. When light passes some medium the speed decreases; in this manner the speed in water amounts to: 2,25.108 m/s and in glass 2.108 m/s. A further description of the theory would go too far in this context, but there exist sufficient very well written books to explain this into more detail. Einstein, who did not mind using one liners, explained the idea of relativity once as: “Lay your hand one minute on a hot stove and it seems an hour, but sit an hour next to a beautiful girl and it seems a minute, that is relativity” Yet the consequences of the theory are enormous and for us often quite incomprehensible. Thus, when two observers are moving towards one another an apparent difference in length is dependent of the observer. This effect is called the Fitzgerald-Lorenz contraction. (see Netherlands Y217:1928). Naturally those effects only become measurable – even when possible – at speeds close to the speed of light. In ordinary life such variations are completely negligible. A plane passing an observer at a speed of 1250 km/hour apparently shrinks not more than one billion of a centimetre, about the size of the nucleus of an atom. In the next classical limerick this contraction is nicely explained: There once was a fellow named Fisk Whose fencing was exceedingly brisk So fast was his action That by the Fitzgerald contraction His rapier soon was reduced to a disk With mass and time the same thing takes place. The result is that speed never can exceed the speed of light as the length would decrease to zero and the mass to infinity. It becomes even more fun when we concern time. At higher

speeds a watch is going to slow down. With every orbit around the earth of a Mercury capsule the astronaut’s watch was retarding one millionth of a second, but naturally it only becomes attractive at speeds close to the speed of light. At a speed half of the speed of light it seems as if the clock of the observer with respect to the other only runs nine tenth of the speed. At 90 percent of the speed of light the clock slows down half, according to the formulae: t1 = t √ (1- v2) / c2 m1 = m / √ (1- v2) / c2 The same formulae are also applicable for the contraction of length where ‘t’ is replaced by ‘L’: for the mass ‘m’ is divided by the root. To clarify this here is a further classical limerick in (I think) its original form: There was a young lady called Bright Who could travel much faster than light She set out one day In a relative way And returned on the previous night

Elevated to Professor

Because of the attention and the impact of these contributions Einstein became a Reader at the Bern University and the following year Professor at Zürich University From 1909 Einstein was placed upon the pedestal, on he is still standing. He then moved several times. But in n 1911 he settled in Prague. In 1912 he returned to Zürich where he developed the idea that the space-time behaviour was not flat, as was assumed until then, but curved. His idea was that mass and energy would bend space-time in an unknown way. Together with his friend Marcel Grossmann he studied the theory of curved spaces and surfaces and in 1913 they published an article where they suggested that things which we say are gravitational forces just express the fact that space-time is curved. Einstein stayed working on this subject when he moved to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin in 1914. This was by request of Max Planck Germany Y85:1952-53) and Walter Nernst : Sweden Y1113:1980) who as special representatives of the University had persuaded him to come to Berlin. They had considered their offer carefully:, attracting him with a position at the University, membership of the Prussian Academy of Science (together with a salary) and the management of a new institute for physics. Although Einstein hesitated, he found that he could not resist. Surprisingly, the membership of the Academy included a special effect as he automatically received German citizenship again. In the beginning his wife accompanied him, but as the international situation deteriorated shortly before the start of WW I, she and the children returned to Zürich, which effectively meant that their marriage was over. Actually it was rather strange that Einstein, who was not very fond of Germany, returned to the country just during the turbulent times before WW I and stayed there until the Nazis made it impossible to him.

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General Theory of Relativity However, in Germany he found the peace to carry out his work on the theory of relativity and to publish a finished version in 1916. This new theory of curved space-time was called ‘General Theory of Relativity’ to distinguish it from the former theory without gravity, now known as ‘Special Theory of Relativity’. In 1917 all the tensions caused by work and the troubles in his private life overcame him and he felt ill. That he recovered was largely due to the efforts of his niece, Elsa Löwenthal, who cared for him. She was divorced and had two daughters, Ilse and Margot. When Albert fell in love with Elsa he and Mileva decided to divorce officially in 1918. Einstein’s work flourished when the German astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich (1885-1964) saw the possibility of proving Einstein’s theory by studying the light coming from stars during a solar eclipse . If Einstein was right the tremendous mass of the sun should deviate the light of the stars slightly. Unfortunately the first observation in Southern Russia was not successful as Finlay-Freundlich’s team had been interned at Odessa. But in the end this turned out well as Einstein got the opportunity to correct the numerical value for the deviation and in fact to double it. In 1919 a group of British scientists under direction of the astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) got the chance to put together an expedition to the isle of Principe and a second one to Sobral in Brasil (see St.Tomé and Principe 1983). Both groups made excellent observations and on 6 November 1919 in a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society it was possible to officially announce that the calculations of Einstein were confirmed by the observations. Thus the theory once established by Sir Isaac Newton became history. The universe appeared to be more remarkable than expected. It was no cosmos in which space and time were different units, but a cosmos in which both were so connected that they could be spoken of as a space time unit : a cosmos in which mass and energy were equivalent and in which a small amount of mass contained tremendous amounts of energy Other proofs for the correctness of the theory was produced in 1932 by John Douglas Cockroft (1897-1964, (see photo) and Ernest Walton (1903-1995; Ireland 2003). They bombarded lithium nuclei with protons. The impact divided the nucleus in two parts by which a reasonable amount of energy was developed. Comparing the total mass of the two fragments with the mass of the former nucleus a difference was noticed, just as predicted. Cockroft and Walton also measured the energy liberated at this process and compared it with the calculated energy according the formula of Einstein. This proved to be exactly right.

Mercury Puzzle A third proof was found from the rotation of the planet Mercury. In the early years of the 20th century it was found that the orbit of the planet was rotating but that for 43 arc-seconds no explanation could be given. The total rotation of Mercury amounts to 574 arc-seconds per century. 531 arc-seconds can be attributed to gravitational effects of other planets. In 1845 the French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier (1811-1877) (France M1183:1958; Comores WB 243) showed that the additional rotation might occur if Mercury was influenced by another planet still closer to the sun. Such a planet, however, had never been found. The real cause of the difference in rotation was deduced using the theory of relativity by which the difference of 43 arc-seconds could exactly be explained from gravitational effects caused by the big mass of the sun. In 1687 Sir Isaac Newton Germany 1993, M1646) had explained in his three-volume book ‘Principia’ that planets orbited the sun in ellipses with the sun in one of its focus. Thinking about a general theory of relativity Einstein studied also a theory with regard to gravity. Towards the end he also worked out equations from planet orbits around the sun. Doing so he discovered a small difference with the results of Newton two and half centuries before. Although Einstein calculated that the orbits were ellipses his formula showed that those ellipses did not stand still with respect to the sun but were turning slowly. Such predicted rotation is so minor that it can hardly be observed. The orbit of the earth, for instance, rotates with a speed of only 3,8 arc-seconds per century. If we figure ourselves that 324.000 arc-seconds fit into a right angle, we easily can imagine how little 3,8 arc-seconds are. At this pace it will take about 34 million years before the earth’s orbit completes one turn. Expressing this difference in Newton’s formula it looks like this:

F = G. M1. M2 / D 2,00000016

The Cosmological Constant The General Theory of Relativity changed the passive and static world of space and time into a dynamic and active universe. However, this led to a great physical problem not solved until our times. The universe is filled up with matter and matter will bend space-time in such a way that bodies will coincide. Einstein discovered that his equations could not explain a non-static universe. Because of his belief in an eternal existing universe he introduced his ‘cosmological constant’ to neutralize the dispersing effect of moving bodies caused by the new theory. Doing so he made a static universe still possible. Unfortunately this opinion prevented him from the discovery of the constantly expanding or contracting universe. Later, Einstein admitted that this was one of his biggest mistakes.

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In 1920 demonstrations began against Einstein’s Jewish background, to which he vehemently objected. In 1921 he visited the United States for the first time primarily to collect funds for the establishment of a Jewish University in Jerusalem. Around 1900 Max Planck had detected the first indication of the quantum effect studying the radiation effects of red glowing bodies, which he only could explain if the light was transmitted absorbed in packages called ‘quanta’. Einstein showed this phenomenon could also explain the photo-electrical effect, which nowadays forms the basis for light detectors and television cameras. However, Einstein never believed fully in the quantum concept which he expressed in his famous quote: “God would not choose to play with the Universe”.

Awarded Nobel Prize

For the work on the photolytic effect he received the Nobel Prize in 1921 (see stamps from Bosnia 2001; Guinee Rep. 2001 LOL atome GUI 31B; Germany Y865:1979 and many others). Strangely enough he did not receive the prize for his theory of relativity

Although Einstein can be considered as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century he had his limitations. For example, he never believed in the ‘Big Bang’ theory for the creation of the Universe as he stuck to the eternal existence of it. Strangely enough Einstein’s own theory showed that because of the general theory of relativity it should be impossible to jump from a contraction period of the Universe to the present expansion and that the Universe did begin with a big bang. Starting from the same opinion he could not believe that time would end in a ‘Black Hole’. In a 1939 article he alleged that they were non-existant He constructed a model of a static black hole and proved that this model was impossible as particles at the outside would travel above the speed of light. And therefore he concluded that a black hole could not exist. The problem lay in his incorrect assumption that black holes are static. Strangely enough, in the same year that he published his article (1939) J. Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder published an article which described in detail how a black hole was formed. Einstein must have had knowledge about this article but never showed any reaction. Anyhow, from that time on he travelled all over the world and received many awards, but he overworked himself and had to restrict himself for two years. Round about this time he got help of a secretary Helen Dukas, who stayed with him for the rest of his life.

Although Einstein was primarily known by his scientific work he also was reknown for a series of often quoted one liners. From 1926 comes his famous quote: “Imagination is more important than knowledge” (See Gibraltar 1998). His involvement in the problems of the world find expression in: “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind”. And his ideas about religion formulated in 1941: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” . From 1930 he dedicated himself fully to his work again. In 1932 he was offered a job at Princeton University in the United States. In principle he was to work for seven months in Berlin and five in Princeton, but because the Nazis had come into power he never returned to Berlin. In his new position he carried out research but also helped Jewish scientists and student refugees who had fled from Germany because of the Nazis. On 2 August 1939 he wrote a letter to the then president, Franklin D.Roosevelt (1882-1945) (see USA Y484:1945) warning him of the fact that Germany possibly was going to build an atomic bomb and urging him to intensify their research on nuclear energy, before Germany would do so. He wrote this letter on behalf of a friend, the physicist Leo Szilard (1898-1964), who was alarmed after the discovery of the nuclear scission. Szilard also requested him to warn the Queen-Mother of Belgium. At that time many scientists were still in doubt if an atomic bomb actually would be possible. It was not until December 1941 that the United States started an ambitious nuclear project under the name ‘Manhattan’. Less known is a letter from Einstein to Roosevelt in which he asks him not to use atomic energy against people. As a consequences Einstein was perplexed on hearing that the United States dropped the bomb on Japan. In 1941 Einstein received the citizenship of the United States, but maintained also his Swiss passport (Madagascar 10100 MAD 1-4). He supported the war in 1944 by collecting 6 million dollars by the sale of his original article on relativity. From 1949 his health was declining although he still contributed much to the Jewish case and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His involvement in the Jewish politics went even that far that after the decease of the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952, opposite), the Israeli government offered him the position of President. He refused although this was very much against his nature.

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 21 By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for May-June 2006

The OSO Series This is the twenty-first in a series of articles about un-manned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO)-series satellites. Eight OSO satellites were successfully launched, starting with OSO-1 on 7 March 1962 and ending with OSO-8 on 23 June 1975. There was one launch failure, that of OSO-C in 1965. The OSO series was intended for studies of solar physics (from above the earth’s atmosphere), and to map the celestial sphere for direction and intensity of ultra-violet (UV) light, X-rays and gamma radiation. OSO-1 was the first satellite to have specifically-pointed instruments and onboard tape recorders for data storage. Each OSO satellite was composed of two sections: a nearly semi-circular “sail” section with solar panels, and a 9-sided “wheel” section that spun like a gyroscope at 30 rpm to stabilize the satellite. Some instruments on the sail pointed at the sun at all times, while other instruments on the wheel scanned the sun every two seconds when the sun was in view. OSO orbits were near-circular, generally around 500 km in altitude and with a 33° inclination to the equator. OSO-1 through 7 were basically identical, with dimensions of about 1 m in diameter and 1 m in height, but with increasing mass as instruments were added or became more complex. An Advanced OSO (AOSO) was intended to continue the study of solar phenomena, but was cancelled and replaced by an improved OSO series, of which OSO-8 was the only one to be launched. AOSO was to be a radically different design with a cylindrical body and 8 solar panels attached to one end. However, OSO-8 reverted to a two-part design somewhat similar to the previous OSOs, but with a much larger solar panel and a cylindrical spinning body. OSO-1/7 (some with specific numbers) and OSO-8 are identified on several postal items. Surprisingly, AOSO is also featured on a stamp issued by Umm Al Qiwain in 1966 (Michel 78 shown below right) and overprinted in 1967 (Michel 89) with new currency values. This is an unusual case of a satellite being featured in a stamp design, but failing to be built and orbited. A checklist of postal items showing OSO-series satellites (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/OSO.htm) is available on the Website developed by the authors for the un-manned satellites featured in this series of articles (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/satellites.htm). E-mail correspondence is welcome. Don Hillger can be reached at hillger@cira.colostate.edu and Garry Toth at garry_toth@hotmail.com.

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and above photo

Below Cosmos 149 and photo

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Turkey : European satellites EOLE (launched August 1991) and another, unnamed, satellite over Europe

Turkish Administration in Cyprus : Hermes shuttle and Ulysses probe

Yugoslavia : Eutelsat 2 and (right) Intelsat beside telephone

Surprisingly not listed on Website are Andorra (Spanish) which devoted two stamps to Olympus 1 (not shown), Austria (ERS 1—not shown) and the

Isle of Man and Guernsey issues

The former territory in two se-tenant pairs below

depicts Ariane 4, Intelsat 5 and Voyager (left) and MARECS, space station “Freedom”, and Intelsat 6,

with the NASA shuttle etc in the background.

The latter as on the cover below devoted a stamp to the following programmes Sputnik, Apollo and Vostok

and to the Discovery of Neptune

Stamp

available

Stamp

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There is always something to be learned about places that serviced covers during the early days of U.S. space exploration (Mercury - Gemini - Apollo). This is particularly true of those locations that were not in the mainstream of events, and played only an ancillary role in their association with the Manned Flight Network, Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network, Deep Space Instrumentation Facilities and the Optical Tracking Network. Jackass Flats, Nevada was such a tracking station. Located in Nevada's Western Shoshone territory, it is about 100 miles north-west of Las Vegas. Obviously, NASA had an interest in Jackass Flats beyond that of a tracking station. In the early 1960's, the Atomic Energy Commission and NASA negotiated an interagency agreement to establish and manage a test area at the Nevada Testing Site (NTS) designated as the Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS). The NTS, established in 1951, occupied a large area in south-west Nevada. The NTS facility was divided into 30 areas. Jackass Flats, designated Area 25, was the largest of the 30 areas. The NDRS was placed under the supervision of the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office in February 1962. In June 1970, SNPO was renamed the Space Nuclear Systems Office. The SNSO was to conduct research and testing for nuclear rocket systems suitable for advanced space exploration. According to Paul Rogers, writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:

Neither nuclear propulsion nor atomic-powered equipment in spacecraft is a new idea. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) have been used in space since 1961, and the Soviet Union launched 31 ships with fission reactors between 1967 and 1988, according to the World Nuclear Association. The concept of nuclear propulsion goes back even further, to Project Orion and the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) program that

began in the mid-1950s. NERVA designs centered on propelling a ship by using a graphite-core nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen to extreme temperatures and eject it through a nozzle at high velocity. Twenty NERVA engines were tested at Jackass Flats, Nevada, before the program was shutdown in 1973. At the end of 1963, the nuclear rocket effort was already in decline as NASA focused on making the Apollo program a success using more conventional rocket engines. NRDS was deactivated in 1973

and became part of NTS in 1974. The NTS facility has been active recently in developing Project Prometheus and the Pluto Project (New Horizons). The mission of Project Prometheus was to develop a nuclear engine to triple our speed in space. However, the project was not funded in the 2006 US Budget. Because of its status as an ancillary supporter of the U.S. manned space program, there were not very many Jackass Flats tracking covers prepared. You may have one or two in your space

cover collection, but more are difficult to find. Jackass Flats tracking covers were prepared for Apollo 4 through Apollo 17. The covers were always cancelled on time and were returned in SASEs. The quality of rubber stamp cachets (RSC) can range from pretty awful to very nice. The quality of rubber-

stamped space covers is determined by ink, stamp quality, size, pictorial content and application. Jackass Flats RSC's are usually good quality, with purple ink, 2"x4" size, interesting pictorial content and clear application. The burro and prospector are shown exploring against the background of Nevada's mountains with the Atomic Energy Commission logo. This communicates a sense of past and future exploration. How scarce are Jackass Flats covers? A review of space cover auctions gives us a clue to answering that question. The following are the results of an extensive search of space cover auctions for the period 1992-2005:

The Astro Postal History Auctions for the period 31 Oct 1992 - 31 May 2004 (12 years)

THE ELUSIVE JACKASS FLATS TRACKING COVERS By Bob Weinberger

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I became interested in insignia when I was a young boy. My Dad was career Army and he had a collection of insignia of the different units he was with from WW II on. In the early 60's he was assigned to a Nike Missile Battery with the CT Army National Guard. It was the time of his career he enjoyed the most and my brothers and I were interested too. Our Dad (Al) was firing rockets for a living. Even though his missiles were a lot smaller than the rockets NASA was using in Project Mercury and Project Gemini, it didn't matter to me. Every year he would have to travel to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for training. It sometimes seemed like he was gone forever. One year he came back with a NASA patch for me. He had seen a Mercury spacecraft on display and he met a few NASA types. Later that year I discovered AB Emblem. Wow, the "official" supplier of NASA patches was making them available for us regular folks! I ordered every one of them. I forget what they cost, but (being 1966) it was probably $1 or $2 each. I remember the day they arrived. I was both thrilled and hooked. Since that time I have added a mission patch for every flight that humans took into space. I've not always purchased from AB Emblem because of the quality issues that they had, but I still check them out each time. The best time Dad and I had was in December 1972, when we were invited to see the launch of Apollo 17. One of Dad's Army friends had a relative who worked at KSC. What a trip that was! My 16th birthday was three months prior to the launch, so witnessing the Apollo 17 launch was my present from Mom and Dad. I forgot about getting a drivers license until January. On the tour of KSC we got to see the Apollo/Saturn V after they had retracted the LUT. What a monster!

That night (7 Dec 1972) I remember that the countdown got to within 30 seconds of launch, when a NASA computer stopped the count because an errant signal determined that the third stage

wasn't pressurized. Time passed slowly as NASA technicians worked the problem. For years my Dad would repeat the story of me yelling in frustration, "They

have to go tonight. We're going home tomorrow!" Finally, the mighty Saturn came to life and slowly and majestically lifted off the launch pad. This was the first night launch for the Saturn V - "in the dead of night" as some have called it. Then, the staccato pounding hit my chest and seemed to take my breath away. Finally, I found my voice and joined in the chorus of people yelling, "GO! GO!" I left KSC with an autographed crew photo, an Apollo 17 patch and stars in my eyes. Apollo 17 was always my mission. Ed’s note - The Apollo 17 launch was recorded by space philatelists on a variety of space covers and several countries have issued stamps commemorating the Apollo 17 mission. The set from Liberia shown below is an example of these philatelic honours.

Fast forward to 1994, I was now living in Florida. I was able to pay my parents back by taking them to see the launch of STS-60 (3 Feb 1994) close up. The three of us witnesses a beautiful launch at dawn under a cloudless cobalt blue sky. When Discovery climbed

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR A SPACE FAN by Guest Contributor Tim Gagnon, Titusville, Florida

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Unstamped Russian Envelopes with Space Symbolics A Philatelic Study Report by Jim Reichman

The latest* impressive piece of astrophilatelic study by our Colorado based member Jim Reichman, being completed only in December of last year, is now available to members. It comes in a “hybrid” format, with the background and introductory data given and many examples printed in colour within an A4 booklet of some 30 pages complemented by two fully printed indexes. However a massive amount of further material is available on a CDRom (in ADOBE .pdf file format) within the back cover of the publication. This production endeavours to index chronologically (but not to value) all productions, within given parameters—see below– produced in a forty year period (1955-1994) which have cachets related to spaceflight, astronomy and military rockets, produced in the USSR and after its break-up within Russia (only). It does not list cachets relating to “First Day of Issue” or which were labelled as cosmonaut mail and do not bear an artistic

cachet and those which (with a few exceptions) were produced by collector clubs. If you would like to purchase a copy of the report please contact Jim directly at jgreichman@datawest.net. Below is printed the Preface written by Jim which explains further how the study paper came about and at the bottom of the page some full examples of the postal stationery some of which you will surely have in your collections. Opposite is printed page 19 of the paper showing cachets on envelopes produced for some of the Vostok flights. * Members will recall Jim’s previous articles in Orbit such as Space Symbology in Russian New Year’s Postal Issues.

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ASSS Membership Renewal 2004

Member’s Name & Address……………………………………………..

……………………………………………………………………………….

I wish to renew my membership of the ASSS for a further year and enclose the equivalent of

£10 (UK/Europe) £15 (elsewhere) £6.50 (Junior)

Please return this form with your remittance to Harvey Duncan by the

end of June. Thank you !

Harvey Duncan Treasurer ASSS 16 Begg Avenue

Falkirk Scotland FK1 2DL