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ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE

STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 78 June 2008

Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

COMMITTEE

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FROM ATOM TO NUCLEAR POWERED SPACECRAFT PART 3: ROCKETS and MISSILES : Part 1 by John Beenen

INTRODUCTION (301. USSR 1968,

WB 227) Before I start to talk about

nuclear missiles which after WW II

were of major

importance in the so-called Cold War

and still today determine the

nuclear armament race, I first have to explain some

abbreviations used within this subject

and without it its development cannot be told easily : please refer to panel opposite.

Reference nuclear warfare one generally

distinguishes between massive nuclear war in which A-bombs and H-bombs are

used and the more tactical and smaller applications of nuclear arms. Especially

for the latter a complete new dimension

was added to the weaponry with the development of nuclear missiles for the short, medium and long range.

As a principle for such applications three families can be

distinguished: 1. conventional cruise missiles

2. cruise missiles with nuclear warheads

3. ballistic missiles (generally also with nuclear warhead(s)

The anti-ballistic missiles (ABM), missiles against missiles, can be considered as a separate class

Fortunately the German V-2 rockets did not carry a nuclear charge, but in a way they were already the

forerunners of the present sophisticated ballistic missile systems.

In the course of the Cold War the Americans as well as

the Soviets constructed a considerable missile force, in

which every new system created a resulting further deterrent reaction from the other side

The proliferation resulting from it came especially to

light in the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, where the

Soviets wanted to locate medium-range (2500 miles) missiles on Cuba as a reaction to the mounting of

Jupiter missiles in Turkey by the USA, with its culmination on October 28th 1962 when the then

President Khrushchev recalled his ships and missiles.

Perhaps the situation on September 26th 1983 was even

more dangerous when the Soviet defence system in

Serpukhov-15 showed that an American missile was

heading for the Soviet Union. Fortunately the then

commander Colonel Stanis lav Petrov

considered this event as an error in the unreliable

Soviet defence system and took no counter-

measures.

(302. Stanislav Petrov in old age) But it became much

tenser when the system showed that another one, and a third, and a fourth and a fifth might have been fired.

Even then Petrov stayed cool and continued to blame

his system. By deciding this Petrov in his own probably prevented a gigantic escalation. Still his superiors were

not so cool and Petrov was transferred by the Soviet authorities. The incident only came to light in 1988.

Even then he was not honoured by the Russians but by

the Americans.

Also during the Cuba crisis such an incident happened when the American battleships were steaming up to

Cuba and met a Soviet submarine and threw depth-charges.

The Soviet commanders were convinced that a war had been broken out and were on the edge to fire a

torpedo with a nuclear warhead. But for such a launching an unanimous decision of all three

commanders was necessary and one commander,

Vasili Arkhipov was against. Hence, nothing

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happened. At a conference in commemoration of 40

years after the Cuban Crisis Mr Robert McNamara

admitted that the world had just escaped a major disaster.

In the meantime the amount of missiles was so large

that each of them would have been able to destroy the other to a great extent. But it also could be expected

that every attack would lead to a counter-attack as with

every strike enough missiles would be left undamaged.Such an equilibrium in destroying force is

called the principle of ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’, also ‘Nuclear deterrence’

In 1963 this led inevitably to the Partial Test Ban Treaty, between the USA, USSR and the UK, by which it

became prohibited to carry out nuclear tests under water, in space and in the atmosphere.

(303. USA 1948, WB 1)

The first rockets were designed in

the USA after the father of the German V-2 rocket, Wernher

von Braun, was captured after WW II and his whole team of over

100 men was transferred to the

States. In White Sands they were provided with the facilities to

make further developments from rockets to missiles.

On the Soviet side parts of the V-2 project, managed by Helmuth Gröttrup, were transferred to the Soviet

Union where they were used for further development.

Besides this more or less private development of rockets

the three units of the American Army, Air Force and Navy had their own independent programmes.

Finally, today many countries possess their own missiles and missile systems. In the course of the years over 500

different systems have been developed divided over more than twenty countries. Hence, it is clear that they

cannot all be discussed in this series. So we shall limit

ourselves to the most important systems and those which have something special; but still, that will be

many.

THE AMERICAN MISSILES Honest John

The first surface to surface missile (SSM) in

the armoury of the

American Air Force was the MGR-1 Honest John.

It had a solid fuel load and was transported in

three parts on a truck. The parts were put together and the missile was

launched on the spot. It could be provided with a small

nuclear warhead and could cover a distance of around

twenty-five kilometres. Between 1951 and 1973 over

7000 were manufactured. After that they were replaced by MGM-52 Lance, but stayed operational

until 1982.

Nike (304. Nike Zeus, Formosa 1969,

WB 4)

After Honest John the American Army from 1945 developed the

Nike project as a missile against aeroplanes up to an altitude of

20 km (Surface to Air, SAM). In

1953 the system became operational with the name MIM-

3 Nike-Ajax and Nike batteries were located around inhabited areas and strategic

spots.

Initially, 1000 missiles were manufactured and then a

additional 240. Later modifications are known as Nike-Hercules (MIM-14), Nike-Zeus A and B (LIM-49), and

Spartan (LIM-49A), which together with Sprint, built up the defence system Sentinel, via which nearly the

whole area of the United States was covered. Later

this was replaced by a simpler (and cheaper) system protecting only the ICBM installations - Safeguard.

The rise of the ICBM systems diminished the need of

the Nikes and moreover, in 1972 they became part of the ABM treaty SALT-1, by which most of these

systems were deactivated. Finally, their production

was postponed and in 1963 phased out in favour of a more specific ABM system based upon the Thor rocket.

The development of the ABM systems changed

completely when the MIRV’s appeared, missiles with

multiple warheads. The consequences were vast as for every warhead a separate missile had to be available

to destroy it. This was to increase the price for an ABM system to an unacceptably high level, yet apart from

the decrease in efficacy.

Also this led directly to the ABM treaty of 1972 by

which limitations were imposed on such provisions. Every country was to possess only one ABM system

with 100 capture missiles to protect one source. The USA chose the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North-

Dakota. But their Safeguard

system was only active for a short while as on June 13th

2002 the USA withdraw from the treaty.

(305. Little Joe, Abkhasia 1999, LOL 10090 ABK 2)

Another missile of the surface-to-air type had been developed

by the end of WW II against

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Japanese kamikaze airplanes—the Little

Joe.

A further development of this rocket later

was used for the escape towers of Mercury and Apollo capsules.

Corporal, Sergeant, Snark

Based upon the technology of the V-2 the

Army also developed a guided missile with a nuclear warhead, MGM-5 Corporal. This

liquid fuelled missile could fly about 100 km but was very unreliable. Also the

toxicity of its fuels (smoking nitrous acid

and hydrazine) and its prolonged and long-lasting starting procedure were

problematic. Thus, in 1964 it was replaced by the MGM-20 Sergeant, which was much

easier to handle because of its solid fuel system. From 1972 this system was replaced by the

MGM-52 Lance.

Also the American Air Force possessed its own missile,

the Northrup SM-62 Snark,

An ICBM with a nuclear warhead, actually an unmanned

airplane with a flying range of about 10.000 km.

Codes The attentive reader will have noticed that all American

missiles are known by a three letter system followed by a number. This system is called MDS Designation

(Mission-Design-Series). The number refers to the goal

of the specific project and the letters have meaning as given in the table above right. Lance

The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical

missile system used to provide both nuclear and non-nuclear general fire support. For the American Army this

missile fulfilled a great many requirements such as: being highly mobile, medium-range, fin stabilized, all

weather type, surface-to-surface. Its primary goal was

to attack key enemy targets beyond the range of cannon artillery such as command and logistic

installations, airfields, firing positions, large troop concentrations and transportation centres, bridgeheads

and main supply routes. The missile was boosted by pre-packed liquid fuel and could cover a distance of

about 120 km.

The missile system became known as the ‘neutron

bomb’ after the Washington Post had published an article about the fact that it could carry a warhead

which would kill people but reduced the destruction of

buildings and collateral damage to civilian populated areas. Unfortunately such an effect is only partly true

which we will discuss later.

The system stayed in use until 1993 and disappeared only after the Presidents George W.Bush Sr. and

Gorbatchov agreed to nuclear arms reduction.

Redstone (306. Redstone, Upper Volta

1973, WB 86) Some of the rockets

mentioned before were

already used, mostly in slightly adjusted form, for

the launching of spacecrafts. But it became really

i n te res t i ng w i th the development of the PGM-11A

Redstone, which among

others was used for the launching of the Chimpanzee Ham and the ballistic

flights of Shepard and Grissom.

In August 1958 the Redstone rocket also was used for

the first nuclear test at high altitude in the Pacific. In the project ‘Hardtack’ Redstone carried two nuclear

charges of 3,75 MT to altitudes of 77,8 (Teak: 01-08-58) and 43 km (Orange: 12-08-58) where they were

detonated.

Jupiter, Juno

(307. Different USA rockets, Paraguay 1964, WB 205)

A direct descendent of Redstone was the PGM-19 Jupiter IRBM

also based upon liquid oxygen,

Lox and hydrocarbons, RP-1.

Mod i f ied Redstones w i th additional stages with solid fuel

were used for a series of nose

cone tests (Jupiter C). Many believe that if the Americans had used this Jupiter C

rocket in space they could have had the first satellite in space around December 1956. The Eisenhower

administration however, wanted to have a civil rocket in space in favour of a military rocket such as

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Vanguard. Hence, von Braun was not permitted to

launch his Jupiter C

(308. Vanguard, Komi 1999, LOL

9965 KOM 7/12D) Unfortunately the Vanguard rocket

failed several times and the government forced by the success

of the Soviet Union with their

Sputnik had to choose for another option. On January 1st 1958 the

Explorer I was launched with the a modified Jupiter C combination,

afterwards re-baptized in Juno I.

The fuel tanks of Redstone MRBM and Jupiter IRBM

were fitted together with eight Jupiter IRBM engines thus making the first stage of the Saturn I and Saturn IB

space rockets. Late in the sixties the Redstone was used for military re-entry experiments and also, in 1967, put

the first Australian satellite ‘Wresat’ in space. The series

of Redstones modified for Australia was named ‘Sparta’.

The Jupiter rockets also were used for other space flights such as of the monkey ‘Gordo’, who died after his

parachute failed to open, but also for the successful

launchings of the monkey’s ‘Able’ and ‘Baker’.

The Jupiter rocket was also used for military applications. After President Charles de Gaulle refused

these rockets permission to be fired from French territory, the Americans left for Italy and Turkey. From

1961 to 1963 to squadrons with 30 rockets and nuclear

warheads were placed in Italy. A third squadron with 15 rockets was located in Turkey in the neighbourhood of

Izmir.

In fact this was the direct introduction to the Cuba

Crisis, because the Soviets could not tolerate such rockets that close to their borders. Apart from that,

these rockets were not necessary at all as they were relatively aged at that time already.

Therefore, in 1961, President Kennedy had ordered their removal, but the Air Force had delayed this

decision as they did not like it. In fact, they were

removed in April 1963, an action which appeared to

come out as a positive response to the Cuban missile issue.

Pershing

(309. Cover (below left) Pershing 16-11-1960) The MGM-31 Pershing was a family of two-stage missiles

on solid fuel meant to replace Redstone. The first

missile was launched on February 25th 1960. From 1964 on it was operational from four platforms in

Western Germany. Ultimately 750 were built .

They were replaced by Pershing II, more flexible, and

with smaller warheads, the possibility for a nuclear warhead which could penetrate deep into the earth, a

so-called ‘bunker buster’ and a MARV (Manoeuvring Re-entry Vehicle). Another adjustment followed making

the missile more similar to the Russian SS 20 and increasing its range with the use of the light and

extreme plastic, Kevlar, to 1600 km. 380 of the

Pershing II were built also serving in Western Germany until 1985.

The systems were put out of use on May 27th 1988 as

part of the ‘Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty’. 15 missile were kept for exhibition.

Thor (310. Thor, Dominica 1973, WB

8, Launching of Tiros 7) The first ballistic missile was the

PGM-17 Thor, operational

between 1959 and 1963. Next to the Jupiter of the American Army

this was the rocket of the Air Force. Apart from military

applications it has been used also

for many space events under the name Thor-Delta.

The range of the Thor is rather large at 2400 km. This

distance makes it possible that Moscow could be hit

from a base in the UK. It also had the advantage over Jupiter that it fitted into the American carrier airplanes

which increased its suitability but it had to be put together on the spot. For its use in

space travel a second stage was mounted originating from the Vanguard with the

name ‘Able’. Together with a third stage the

Thor-Able-Star combination was suitable for the launch of Pioneer I (11-10-1958) to the

Moon, but the mission failed after 77 seconds because of a defect in the turbo

engine. The combination was more

successful in launching the first American communication satellite in space, Courier 1B

(04-10-1960) and the first tandem launch of the military satellites Transit 2A and Solrad 1

on June 22nd 1960.

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By 1959 the NASA had asked Douglas to develop a

fourth edition of the Thor combination, named Thor-

Delta as Delta was the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. Thor-Delta launched for instance Echo I. To

differentiate it from the military applications the rocket for space travel after that was called only Delta. Delta

served for 45 years servicing about 300 launchings of which 95% were successful. The rocket was gradually

upgraded. The fourth version, Delta D, also was called

Thrust-augmented Thor (TAT)

The TAT and the Thor-Agena were also modifications to launch espionage satellites (Recon) within the Corona

programme (Discoverer 4,13, 38, Samos E-1, E-2)

Atlas

(311. Atlas, Paraguay 1967, WB 537)

The first successful American ling-distance missile (ICBM)

was the HGM-16 Atlas-F,

which was copied by the Soviets as directed by their

chief-designer Sergei Korolev, as their R-7.

The R-7 was tested for the first time in August 1957 and

carried the first Sputnik on October 4th 1957.

Atlas missiles were stored in vertical position in silos in clusters of 12 to 15 missiles. They were launched from

the ground. In the middle of the sixties the Atlas and his

larger brother, the Titan, was slowly replaced by the solid fuelled LGM-30 Minuteman, which could be stored

for a prolonged period and could be launched without additional fuel in stead of Atlas which was designed for

liquid fuel of the type Lox/RP-1. The Atlas rocket also

was used for space investigations such as the launch of the Mariners and some Mercury and Gemini missions

including that of the first American to orbit, John Glenn on February 20th 1962.

The Atlas rocket is considered as one of the most successful rockets of the American space programme.

Titan

(312. Titan 2, Upper Volta 1973, WB 84)

The Titan was also a very

successful space rocket. In fact Titan was a whole family

of rockets launched between 1959 until 2005. It was

designed for liquid fuel (Lox/

RP-1) and as such it was not a rocket which could be

manoeuvred very quickly. The filling and launching

lasted about half an hour.

Liquid oxygen is a very dangerous substance certainly

in a closed area as a silo. Thus, several Atlas and Titan

rockets exploded in their silos killing many workers. In August 1965 53 workers died when a hydraulic liquid

caught fire in a silo in Arkansas. In the same way in another silo a nuclear warhead of 3000 kg was blown

into the air.

Most Titan rockets were developed from the Titan II

ICBM with a nuclear warhead of 9 MT. Titan with the second stage Agena-D was destined for the launch of

espionage satellites. By adding solid fuel rockets Titan II was formed, and by further modification Titan IV, by

which among others Cassini was launched into the

direction of Saturn.

In the late eighties, and triggered by the great many accidents, Titan was replaced by the solid fuel missile

50 MX Peacekeeper

Peacekeeper (MX)

The LGM-118A Peacekeeper, also called ‘MX’, is a ground located ICBM operational from 1986. Within

the non-ratified START II Treaty (cancelled by the Russians in 2002) it was agreed that the system would

be dismantled in 2005 and that only the LGM-30

Minuteman would remain. Although the START Treaty did not become in operation Peacekeeper was

abandoned in 2005.

Peacekeeper was a four-stage MIRV missile, thus with multiple warheads, in this case ten, each of them 300

kT and altogether over 25 times more powerful than

the bomb on Hiroshima. In practice the missile was launched from its silo first and its rocket engines only

were ignited some ten meters above the ground. Finally, the amount of missiles was limited to 50 and

also a subsequent project by which the missile should

be transported by train was cancelled.

The costs of the Peacekeeper project were gigantic and amounted to 20 milliard dollar (up to 1998) for

114 missiles of 400 million dollar each for each

operational missile. Above it came the firing costs of 20-70 million dollar each. Apart from the costs also the

development and testing of the nuclear missiles did not always go as planned. A series of accidents happened

by which the airplane with nuclear load was lost. Most of these weapons could be recovered but some of

them were not.

Minuteman

The LGM-30 Minuteman also is a ground based ICBM and from 2006 the only operational ICBM system of

the USA. It is supported by the sea-launched SLBM

Trident and by long-distance bombers with nuclear loads. The Minuteman, however, is not cheap. One

missile costs $33,5 million which may rise to $48,5 million.

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The present defence system consists of 500 Minuteman

III missiles placed in silos in three locations in the USA.

Minuteman is a guided missile based on a three-stage rocket on solid fuel and a last stage a booster with a

liquid fuel system. However START finally did not get underway and the plan to prohibit missiles with multiple

nuclear warheads is of the table and Minuteman possesses a MIRV system.

Minuteman has been in operation since 1970 and is modernized regularly. It therefore looks possible to keep

it operational until 2025. Minuteman I and II were operational between 1960 and 1997, Minuteman III

started already in 1969. Originally it was planned that

Peacekeeper would be Minuteman’s successor but finally the opposite happened.

Tomahawk (cruise missile)

To hit an enemy over a longer distance actually two systems are in use: the ballistic systems as discussed

before and the cruise missiles.

Cruise missiles are low-flying guided missiles mostly

provided with small wings and driven by a rocket engine. As a principle they are quite similar to an

unmanned airplane. Apart from conventional loads they

also could carry a nuclear warhead. They can carry up to 500 kg of explosive material and mostly are meant

against ships or bunkers. The guidance is carried out by radar or infra-red or by a build-in navigation system by

GPS or ordnance maps.

The first cruise missile was the ‘Kettering Bug’ in 1917

designed WW I. It never came into use as the war was ended before it was ready. The V-1 in WW II was a kind

of cruise missile.

(313. Regulus cover, 8-6-1959)

After the war the Americans experimented in the ‘Project Pluto’ with cruise missiles with nuclear

loads ending up with the ‘Regulus’. Also the Soviet Union had their cruise missiles.

The most well-known American cruise missile still in use is the BGM-109 Tomahawk. This missile also

is used by the British and the Dutch Navy. Compared to Peacekeeper and Minuteman the

Tomahawk missiles are cheap costing $500.000 dollar and with all accessories added, $ 1,4 million.

In total 4170 have been produced, he whole

project cost $ 11,2 milliard.

The Tomahawks exist in several variations. The type which could be launched from a truck was

destroyed as a result of the ‘Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty’ of 1987 The American Air Force uses its AGM-86. Both missiles have been intensively

used in the operation ‘Desert Storm’ and the Kosovo war. Out of it the Americans have developed special

versions with nuclear loads of 5 to 150 kT.

Russia possesses Kh-55SM rockets with the same

flying range as the Americans, about 3000 km, but

they also have an improved version, X-555, with a heavier load (200 kT)..

India and Russia together developed the supersonic

BrahMos, the UK and France the Storm Shadow, Germany and Sweden the Taurus and Pakistan, the

Babur, very similar to the Tomahawk after an

American Tomahawk missile landed by accident on Pakistani territory.

STRATEGIC DEFENCE INITIATIVE (STARWARS) And then out of the blue President Ronald Reagan

announced on March 23rd 1983 the Strategic

Defense Initiative commonly called ‘Starwars’ to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect

the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.

The description ‘Starwars’ for the project is thought to

have been used for the first time by one of its

opponents, Dr.Carol Rosin, a consultant and former spokesman for Werher von Braun. Of course, the

supporters of the system asserted that this nickname gave a total false impression of what SDI really is.

Due to the massive opposition of subsequent governments and the extremely high costs it was

never fully developed or deployed, but in recent years the initiative was picked up again by the Bush

government under the name BMDO (Ballistic Missile Defense Organization).

The SDI was not the first US defence system against nuclear ballistic missiles. We already mentioned the

Sentinel and the Safeguard Programmes from the sixties. Also the Soviet Union developed a missile

defence system in the seventies.

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The concept of the use of space for a strategic defence

system was first given in 1979 by Lieutenant General

Daniel O.Graham. The initial focus of the system was a nuclear explosion powered X-ray laser designed at the

Livermore National Laboratory by a scientist, Peter Hagelstein, working with a team called the ‘O Group’.

This led directly to the speech of President Reagan mentioned before.

The system also contained the development of a ground-based defence system named ERINT (Extended Range

Interceptor), later developed into the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3). In 1983 the first tests with this

system were made.

But the X-ray system and the ground-based systems

were just some of the systems under research within SDI. Other systems were: Mid Infra-red Advanced

Chemical Laser (MIRACL), Neutral Particle Beam (NPB), Hypervelocity Rail Gun (CHECMATE, Compact High

Energy Capacitor Module Advanced Technology

Experiment), Laser and mirror experiments (HPTE, High Precision tracking Experiment) with use of the LACE

satellite, the Space Base Interceptor, Brilliant Pebbles, watermelon-sized mini-missiles with a high velocity

kinetic warhead and different sensor programs SDI

envisioned many space-based systems in fixed orbits.

The American SDI programme was intensively discussed at the President Reagan – Gorbatchov Summit in

Reykjavik in October 1986. But on this subject the two world leaders disagreed.

The deployment of a SDI programme would mean that the United States had to modify, withdraw from, or

violate previously ratified treaties such as the Outer

Space Treaty of 1967 which forbade the installation of

weapons in space, the ABM Treaty which limited

missile defences to one location per country at 100 missiles each, and the NPT Treaty as it supported

nuclear disarmament. Opponents criticized SDI also because it disrupted the strategic doctrine of Mutual

Assured Destruction, which was rejected by the Reagan government as a ‘suicide pact’.

Also SDI was not seen to be effective against a great many other arms such as cruise missiles, bombers and

other methods.

Dr Hans Bethe, a nuclear scientist, meant that the X-

ray laser offers: ‘No prospect of being a useful component in a system for ballistic missile defence’.

He was strongly countered by one of the inventors of the H-bomb, Dr. Edward Teller. Still the developments

within the SDI programme go on and are even re-instituted by the present American administration

under its new name BMDO.

Of the 12 experiments carried out within the present

project according to the Pentagon seven were successful. We may expect that even today from all

satellites orbiting around us, there certainly are some

of them fitting within the SDI programme, and about which we do not know anything; A frightening

thought.

In the continuation of Part Three of this series in our next issue, John Beenen covers Missiles Launched by Ships, The Peace Movement, Soviet Missiles and Missiles from other states.

Weltraum Philatelie e. V. presents new full colour catalogue of space stamps

The results of a true herculean effort have been presented by German space stamp collectors: a catalogue showing all space stamps ever issued in Europe and Russia. The publication of the catalogue has been sponsored by Weltraum Philatelie e. V., the German association of space stamp and cover collectors. From Albania through Yugoslavia – on 456 (!) pages, author Dieter Steinbrecher has been assembling, describing and scanning all space stamps issued up tp the end of 2007. “This catalogue caters for the needs of collectors who wish to collect, sort or exhibit space and astronomy stamps”, Steinbrecher explains The numbering system of the German Michel catalogue is used but no values are given. Florian Noller, President of “Weltraum Philatelie”, is very enthusiastic about the publication: „Each and every single stamp is reproduced in colour, not just a single stamp standing as an example. This has never been done before.” The giant effort doesn’t even end here: in the years to come, „Weltraum Philatelie“ intends to add volumes 2 to 5 to their catalogue, assembling the space stamps issued on other

continents.

Bibliographical indications: Dipl.-Ing. D. Steinbrecher, Weltraum Philatelie Motivkatalog Raumfahrt und Astronomie – Europa, 446 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-929659-02-3, Kosmonautik-Verlag, Sinzig. Price per copy: 55 Euro plus postage. A CD-Rom of the catalogue (pdf) is available for 20 Euro + postage. Contact Florian Noller

e-mail: florian@spaceflori.com Postal address: Florian Noller, Postfach 1320, D - 71266 Renningen Germany Payment can be made by bank draft, cash payment or through Paypal. A scan of an inside sample page is available on request from JPEsders@web.de

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 26 By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for March/April 2007

The San Marco Series

This is the twenty-sixth in a series of articles about un-

manned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the Italian San Marco-series satellites. Five

San Marco satellites were successfully launched, starting with San Marco-1 on 15 December 1964, and

ending with San Marco-D/L on 25 March 1988. Only San Marco-D/M failed (in 1983). In addition, the San

Marco satellites were preceded by two San Marco sub-

orbital rockets launched in 1963.

San Marco is not only the name of a series of satellites, but also is the name of a floating launch facility located

near the Earth’s equator off the coast of Kenya, close

to the town of Malindi. The San Marco sub-orbital launches and that of San Marco-1 were from Wallops

Island VA, but the remaining San Marcos as well as several other satellites were launched from the San

Marco platform. One of those other satellites was

Explorer-42/Uhuru, the first American satellite launched by a foreign team. (The Explorer satellites

were covered in the 16th article in this series.) The San Marco platform appears on two of the stamps

issued by Paraguay in 1966 (Scott 962 and 963).

The San Marco satellites were designed to measure air

density at orbital altitude, as well as to monitor ionospheric characteristics. San Marco-1 and 2 were

spherical in shape, to provide a constant cross section to eliminate the need for satellite attitude control and

simplify the determination of atmospheric drag through

observations of changes in the satellite’s orbit. The satellites had telemetry and command antennas

attached to the spherical body.

San Marco-3 and 4 were a bit larger and consisted of two parts: a heavier internal structure and a lighter

outer shell. A series of flexible arms connected the

two parts. Stresses in the flexible arms caused by atmospheric drag were used to determine the air

density at orbital altitude. These San Marcos employed an attitude control system and a spin rate control

system, and were powered by rows of solar panels

mounted equatorially on the inner core.

According to available documentation, the first four San Marco satellites had black and white longitudinal

sections painted on their surface for thermal control.

However these stripes are often not reproduced on postal items showing the satellites. Moreover, in cases

where the stripes are shown, they are red and white (see the stamps from Ajman, Manama, Micronesia, and

Poland) rather than black and white.

The non-striped images of the satellites on the Ecuador,

Panama, and Paraguay stamps have an appearance that

is more like that of Vanguard-2, and include a launch attachment that is reminiscent of some of the Vanguard-

1 images seen on stamps. This common, but likely incorrect, image of San Marco-1 on all these items may

be the result of the same designer working on them. Another possibility is that multiple designers may have

been influenced by an incorrect reference image of the

satellite in their stamp designs, or the incorrect image propagated from one stamp to another.

The final satellite in the series, San Marco-5 (D/L), was

about 1 m in diameter with wider rows of equatorially-

mounted solar panels, and no stripes. This was the last satellite launched from the San Marco platform. This

satellite appears on only two stamps, one issued by Comoro Islands and the other by Italy.

A checklist of postal items showing San Marco-series

satellites (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/

SanMarco.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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Philatelic Literature Review By Bruce Cranford (March 08)

“Philatelic Study Report, 2008-1, Back of the Envelope - Revisited,

by James G. Reichman, 10 March 2008 Privately printed, Mesa, Az., USA”

Philatelic literature is an essential part of any collector of space stamps/covers hobby or business. Anyone who is interested in Russian envelopes or space covers should

have Jim Reichman=s Back of the Envelope - Revisited

report as part of their philatelic literature. I found it very useful in providing information about the Russian pre-stamped envelopes. Jim explains the arcane Russian text on the back of the envelopes and postcards and converts it into intelligent and useful information. Jim identifies each item on the back of the envelope including the date printed, production quantities, the factory where the envelope was printed, the artist, costs, to name a few. He has identified the history of each from the early 1950's to present, and provides information on the variations and inconsistencies found. The 49 pages report of full of tables, graphics, pictures, and explanatory text. The information density is very high. This is not light reading, but the information gained is worth the effort. I thank Jim for his hard work and diligent effort to gain and document this information on Russian covers. This report is an essential part of my philatelic literature library. Electronic copies of this report are available. for $10 plus shipping. Contact Jim at jgreichman@datawest.net or 3165 East University Drive, Lot#350, Mesa, AZ 85213 to get a copy.

Caveat Stamp Collector ! If you are reading this, the chances are that you are already hooked on several aspects of our hobby, writes your Editor, but have you ever thought that such an obsession (if it is that) might cost some collectors their financial security, their partner and their emotional health ? Such is the case for writer Simon Garfield, extracts from whose book The Error World were printed in The Daily Mail for April 5th and which you might like to take a look at. (See opposite for the end of the article). Garfield explains that he took up collecting like so many other boys and then lost interest before returning to specialise in collecting modern British errors, the pleasures of doing which he writes eloquently about. But he would such spend substantial amounts of cash, that he had to hide his collection away in a drawer and got so little pleasure when showing it as those who looked it

over were somewhat underwhelmed.

Remarkable Coincidence for Second Generation Spacefarers

When cosmonaut Sergei

Volkov, (right) currently on board the ISS as a member of

the Expedition 17 team, returns to Earth in October he

will do so in the same craft as

B r i t i s h - b o r n A m e r i c a n entrepreneur and sixth space

participant Richard Garriott, (below right) who has made

his fortune in computer games

and is vice-chairman of the Space Adventures company.

Garriott is slated to fly to the ISS in Soyuz TMA-13, currently

due to launch on 12th October

along with Salizhan Sharipov and Michael Fincke.

What is remarkable is that

both men are the only two ever to have flown in space in

the footsteps of their fathers.

Volkov’s father is veteran Alexander A. Volkov of Soyuz T-14, Soyuz TM7 and

Soyuz TM13. In 1991 Volkov went into space as a Soviet citizen but returned as a Russian when the USSR

political union broke up during his flight. Garriott’s

father is Dr Owen Garriott, who flew on one of the Skylab missions in 1973 and on STS-9 ten years later.

Images of the fathers appear on covers but not on any

stamps known to your Editor.

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Bulgaria (25.4.07) 50th anniv of Sputnik 1.00l showing craft, Earth and moon Ghana (22.1.07)

Luna 9: 4 x 1000c values Apollo XI, showing Aldrin—1 x 2000c ASTP : 6 x 6500c values + 2000c MS Viking 1 landing on Mars— 1 x 2000c Giotto Probe : 6 x 6500c values Great Britain (26.7.07) Scout Centenary 1st NVI shows Scout looking at stars and referring to Moonwalkers who were scouts. Ireland (25.5.97) The Planets 2 x 55c showing Jupiter and Neptune 2 x 78c showing Saturn and Uranus Lebanon (2.7.07) ITU World summit on ICT 100l Earth seen from space Nevis (11.9.07) 30th anniv of Viking on Mars 4 x $3 New Zealand (6.6.07) Southern Skies: Astronomical Observatories and Photos

Five values New Zealand (31.8.07) Huttpex 2007 Stamp Exhibition 2 x $2 shows observatories and astronomic phenomena Poland (4.1.07) 15th Holiday Orchestral Concert Heart with Saturn-like rings and moon Poland (15.6.07) 3.55zl Copernicus planetarium (1955) Russia (18.10.06) 10th anniv of membership of Council of Europe 8.00r shows Earth as seen from space Russia (9.11.06) 15th anniv of Regional Commonwealth in Communication : 5r satellite dish and Moscow TV tower Russia (12.4.07) 50th anniv of Sputnik (above right) 10r shows Sputnik and 2 x 20r Korolev and Tsiolkovsky

New Issue Guide Noted in STAMP Magazine

(Nov 07—June 08) so no SG nos given

Russia (2.7.07)

50th anniv of Plesetsk Cosmodrome (below) 50r shows rocket on launch pad St Kitts (3.1.07) Luna 9 4 x $2 Giotto and Halley’s comet 6 x $1.60 ISS on $5 MS Singapore (12.11.07) National Library Board Programme 26c and $1.10 show space objects Sudan (20.10.07) Rascom General Assembly Meeting 4 vals show Rascom logo and satellite over Africa TAAF (21.6.07) Course of the Sun at Dumont d’Urville Base 90c photomontage of sun between 10.25 am / 2.53pm Tuvalu (21.9.06) 4 x $1.30 showing space shuttle and ISS $3 Calipso deployed in space 6 x $1 flight of Discovery Ukraine (12.4.06) Ukrainian Contribution to Space Exploration 3 x 85k showing Koronas 1 (Sun probe), cosmonaut outside

ISS and Halley’s comet Ukraine (28.4.06) Europa 2006—Young artists’ view of integration 2.50G Saturn 3.50G Jupiter and comet United States (25.5.07) Star Wars films—15 x 41c in a sheetlet showing characters from films

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Flight STS-81 Commander Michael Baker Pilot Brent Jett MS Jeff Wisoff MS John Grunsfeld MS Marsha Ivins MS up Jerry Linenger MS down John Blaha KSC Launch Date 12.1.1997 KSC Landing 22.1.1997 Purpose / MIR Docking Main Payload SPACHAB

Shuttle Story : 1997—STS -81, -82, -83, -84, -94, -85, -86, & -87 STS-81 was the fifth of nine planned missions to Mir and the second one involving an exchange of U.S. astronauts. Astronaut John Blaha, who had been on Mir since September 19, 1996, was replaced by astronaut Jerry Linenger. Linenger spent more than four months on Mir. He returned to Earth on Space Shuttle Mission STS-84.Atlantis carried the SPACEHAB double module providing additional middeck locker space for secondary experiments. During the five days of docked operations with Mir, the crews transferred water and supplies from one spacecraft to the other. The STS-81 mission included several experiments in the fields of advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences, microgravity, and space sciences. It was hoped that data would supply insight for the planning and development of the International Space Station, Earth-based sciences of human and biological processes, and the advancement of commercial technology. STS-81 involved the transfer of 5,975 pounds (2,710 kg) of logistics to and from the Mir, the largest transfer of items to date. During the docked phase, 1,400 pounds (635 kg) of water, 1,137.7 pounds (516.1 kg) of U.S. science equipment, 2,206.1 pounds (1,000.7 kg) of Russian logistics along with 268.2 pounds (121.7 kg) of miscellaneous material were transferred to Mir. Returning to Earth aboard Atlantis were 1,256.6 pounds (570.0 kg) of U.S. science material, 891.8 pounds (404.5 kg) of Russian logistics and 214.6 pounds (97.3 kg) of miscellaneous material. First Shuttle flight of 1997 highlighted by return of U.S. astronaut John Blaha to Earth after 118-day stay aboard Russian Space Station Mir and the largest

transfer to date of logistics between the two spacecraft. Atlantis also returned carrying the first plants to complete a life cycle in space — a crop of wheat grown from seed to seed. This fifth of nine planned dockings continued Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative effort, with Linenger becoming the third U.S. astronaut in succession to live on Mir. Same payload configuration flown on previous docking flight — featuring SPACEHAB Double module — were flown again. Blaha had joined Mir 22 crew of Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer Alexandr Kaleri on September 19, 1996, when he arrived there with the crew of STS-79. Linenger was to work with the Mir 22 crew until the arrival in February of the Mir 23 crew of Commander Vasili Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and German researcher Reinhold Ewald. Ewald was to return to Earth

with the Mir 22 cosmonauts after a brief stay on the station. Docking occurred at 22:55 EST, January 14, followed by hatch opening at 00:57 January

15. Linenger officially traded places at 04:45 with Blaha who spent 118 days on the station and 128 days total on-orbit. The crew also tested on Shuttle the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (TVIS), designed for use in the Russian Service Module of the International Space Station. Another activity related to International Space Station involved firing the orbiter's small vernier jet thrusters during mated operations to gather engineering data. (Source : Wikipedia)

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Flight STS-82 Commander Ken Bowersox Pilot Scott Horowitz MS Steven Hawley MS Mark Lee MS Gregory Harbaugh MS Steven Smith PS Joe Tanner KSC Launch Date 11.2.1997 KSC Landing 21.2.1997 Purpose / HST Main Payload Servicing

STS-82 demonstrated anew the capability of the Space Shuttle to service orbiting spacecraft as well as the benefits of human spaceflight. The crew completed servicing and upgrading of the Hubble Space Telescope during four EVAs and then performed a fifth unscheduled space walk to repair insulation on

the telescope. HST deployed in April 1990 during STS-31. It was designed to undergo periodic servicing and upgrading over its 15-year lifespan, with first servicing performed during STS-61 in December 1993. Hawley, who originally deployed the telescope, operated the orbiter Remote Manipulator System arm on STS-82 to retrieve HST for second servicing at 3:34 a.m. EST, Feb. 13, and positioned it in payload bay less than half

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Flight STS-83 Commander James Halsell Pilot Susan Still PC Janice Voss MS Donald Thomas MS Michael Gernhardt PS Roger Crouch PS Greg Linteris KSC Launch Date 4.4.1997 KSC Landing 8.4.1997 Purpose / Microgravity Payload Sciences Lab.

Mission Impossible (first time) ! This mission was originally launched on April 4, 1997, and was intended to be on orbit for over 15 days but was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 and Columbia landed on April 8, after 3 days 23 hours. NASA decided to fly the mission again as STS-94, which was launched on July 1 of the same year The primary payload was the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL), a collection of microgravity experiments housed inside the European Spacelab Long Module (LM). It built on the cooperative and scientific foundation of the previous International Microgravity Laboratory missions on STS-42, STS-65, STS-50, STS-73, STS-47, STS-78, SYS-61A and STS-55 MSL featured 19 materials science investigations in 4 major facilities. These facilities were the Large Isothermal Furnace, the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack, the Electromagnetic

Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) and the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM) facility, the Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) and the Combustion Module-1 Facility. Additional technology experiments were to be performed in the Middeck Glovebox (MGBX) developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the High-Packed Digital Television (HI-PAC DTV) system was used to provide multi-channel real-time analog science video. The Large Isothermal Furnace was developed by the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) for the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission and was also flown on STS-65 IML-2 mission. The Combustion Module-1 (CM-1) facility from the NASA Lewis Research Center housed experiments on Laminar Soot Processes Experiment and the Structure of Flame Balls at Low Lewis-number Experiment (SOFTBALL). The Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) was designed to investigate the fundamental combustion aspects of single, isolated droplets under different pressures and ambient oxygen concentrations for a range of droplet sizes varying between 2 and 5 mm. The DCE apparatus is integrated into a single width MSL Spacelab rack in the cargo bay. The EXPRESS rack replaced a Spacelab Double rack and special hardware provided the same structural and resource connections the rack had on the Space Station. It housed the Physics of Hard Spheres (PHaSE) experiment and the Astro/PGBA Experiment. The Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) is used for the Experiments on Nucleation in Different Flow Regimes, Thermophysical Properties of Advanced Materials in the Undercooled Liquid State Experiment,

Measurements of the Surface Tension of Liquid and Undercooled Metallic Alloys by Oscillating Drop Technique Experiment, Alloy Undercooling Experiments, the Study of the Morphological Stability of Growing Dendrites by Comparative Dendrite Velocity Measuremetns on Pure Ni and Dilute Ni-C

Alloy in the Earth and Space Laboratory Experiment, the Undercooled Melts of Alloys with Polytetrahedral Short-Range Order Experiment, the Thermal Expansion of Glass Forming Metallic Alloys in the Undercooled State Experiment, the AC Calorimetry and Thermophysical Properties of Bulk Glass-Forming Metallic Liquids experiment and the Measurement of Surface Tension and Viscosity of Undercooled Liquid Metals experiment. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Flight STS-84 Commander Charles Precourt Pilot Eileen Collins MS Michael Foale MS Carlos Noriega MS Ed Lu MS Jean-François Clervoy MS Yelena Kondakova KSC Launch Date 5.5.1997 KSC Landing 24.5.1997 Purpose / Sixth Shuttle-MIR Main Payload Docking / Crew Transfer

The STS-84 mission was the 6th Shuttle/Mir docking mission and involved the transfer of 7,314 pounds (3,318 kg) of water and logistics to and from the Mir. A highlight was the transfer of the fourth successive U.S. crew member to the Russian Space Station. British born U.S. astronaut Michael Foale exchanged places with Jerry Linenger, who had arrived at Mir January 15, 1997 with the crew of Shuttle Mission STS-81. Linenger spent 123 days on Mir and just over 132 days in space from launch to landing, placing him second behind U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid for most time spent on-orbit by an American. Another milestone reached during his stay was one-year anniversary of continuous U.S. presence in space that began with Lucid's arrival at Mir March 22, 1996. Other significant events during Linenger's stay included first U.S.-Russian space walk. On April 29, 1997 Linenger participated in five-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) with Mir 23 Commander Vasili

Tsibliev to attach a monitor to the outside of the station. The Optical Properties Monitor (OPM) was to remain on Mir for nine months to allow study of the effect of the space environment on optical properties, such as mirrors used in telescopes. STS-84 docking with Mir occurred May 16 at 10:33 p.m. EDT above the Adriatic Sea. Hatches between two spacecraft opened at 12:25 a.m., May 17. Greetings exchanged between STS-84 crew and Mir 23 Commander Vasili Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and Linenger, followed by a safety briefing. Linenger and Foale officially traded places at 10:15 a.m. EDT. Transfer of items to and from Mir proceeded smoothly and was completed ahead of schedule. One of first items transferred to station was an Elektron oxygen-generating unit. The research program planned for Foale featured 35 investigations (33 on Mir, two on STS-84, and another preflight/postflight) in six disciplines: advanced technology, Earth observations and remote sensing, fundamental biology, human life sciences, space station risk mitigation, and microgravity sciences. Twenty-eight of these were conducted during previous missions and were to be continued, repeated or completed during Foale's stay. Seven new experiments were planned in biological and crystal growth studies and materials processing.

Undocking occurred at 9:04 p.m. EDT, May 21. Unlike prior dockings, no flyaround of the station by the orbiter was conducted, but orbiter was stopped three times while backing away to collect data from a European sensor device designed to assist future rendezvous of a proposed European Space Agency resupply vehicle with the International Space Station. Other activities conducted during the mission included investigations using the Biorack facility, located in the

SPACEHAB Double Module in Atlantis’s payload bay, a photo survey of Mir during docked operations, environmental air samplings and radiation monitoring. (Source: Wikipedia) In the mission patch design note the Greek letter Phi with one stars to mark the Phase One Program and the Russian word for MIR surrounded by six stars. The seven stars represent the seven modules then comprising MIR

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STS-83 Flies Again ! This was a reflight of the STS-83 Microgravity Science Laboratory

(MSL) mission, with identical crew and objectives, details of which appear on page 20. MSL was originally launched on April 4, 1997

at 2:20 p.m. EST and was intended to be on orbit for 15 days, 16 hours. The mission was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell

#2 and Columbia landed on 4/8/97 after 3 days 23 hours.

The primary payload on STS-83 / STS-94 was the Microgravity

Science Laboratory (MSL). MSL was a collection of microgravity experiments housed inside a European Spacelab Long Module

(LM). It built on the cooperative and scientific foundation of the

International Microgravity Laboratory missions (IML-1 on STS-42 and IML-2 on STS-65), the United States Microgravity Laboratory

missions (USML-1 on STS-50 and USML-2 on STS-73), the Japanese Spacelab mission (Spacelab-J on STS-47), the Spacelab

Life and Microgravity Science Mission (LMS on STS-78) and the

German Spacelab missions (D-1 on STS-61-A and D-2 on STS-55). MSL featured 19 materials science investigations in 4 major

facilities. These facilities were the Large Isothermal Furnace, the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station

(EXPRESS) Rack, the Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) and the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures

(CSLM) facility, the Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) and the

Combustion Module-1 Facility. Additional technology experiments were to be performed in the Middeck Glovebox (MGBX) developed

by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the High-Packed Digital Television (HI-PAC DTV) system was used to provide multi-

channel real-time analog science video. (Source: Wikipedia)

The crew insignia as shown on the above launch and landing cover

differs from STS-83 only in having a blue border, where the original patch has a red one. The circle in the centre symbolises a

free liquid under microgravity conditions representing fluid and material science experiments. Symbolic of the combustion

experiments is the surrounding starburst of blue flame burning in

space.

Flight STS-94 Commander James Halsell Pilot Susan Still PC Janice Voss MS Donald Thomas MS Michael Gernhardt PS Roger Crouch PS Greg Linteris KSC Launch Date 1.7.1997 KSC Landing 17.7.1997 Purpose / Microgravity Payload Sciences Lab.

The unique double-flight crew of STS-83 and STS-94, with commander

and pilot either side of the mission patch logo

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Flight STS-85 Commander Curtis Brown Pilot Kent Rominger MS Jan Davis MS Richard Curbeam MS Stephen Robinson MS Bjarni Tryggvason KSC Launch Date 7.8.1997 EAFB Landing 19.8.1997 Purpose / CRISTA-SPAS Main Payload 02

Jeffrey S. Ashby was originally assigned to STS-85 which was to be his first, but

resigned from this mission to take care of his late wife, who was dying from cancer. He was replaced by Kent Rominger and allowed to fly STS-93 instead. The deployment and retrieval of a satellite designed to study Earth's middle atmosphere along with a test of potential International Space Station hardware highlighted NASA's sixth Shuttle mission of 1997. The prime payload for the flight, the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite-2 (CRISTA-SPAS-2) made its second flight on the Space Shuttle (previous flight STS-66 in 1994) and was the fourth mission in a cooperative venture between the German Space Agency (DARA) and NASA. During the flight, Davis used Discovery's robot arm to deploy the CRISTA-SPAS payload for about 9 days of free-flight. CRISTA-SPAS consists of three telescopes and four spectrometers that measured trace gases and dynamics of the Earth's middle atmosphere. Davis also operated the robot arm for CRISTA-SPAS retrieval. The Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) on which the scientific instruments were mounted is a self-contained platform that provides power, command, control and communication with Discovery during free-flight. Two other instruments mounted on the SPAS also studied the Earth's atmosphere. The Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Instrument (MAHRSI) measured hydroxyl and nitric oxide by sensing UV radiation emitted and scattered by the atmosphere, while the Surface Effects Sample Monitor (SESAM) was a passive carrier for state-of-the-art optical surfaces to study the impact of the atomic oxygen and the space environment on materials and services. The crew also supported the Manipulator Flight Demonstration (MFD)

experiment being sponsored by NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency. MFD consists of three separate experiments located on a support truss in the payload bay. The primary objective was to demonstrate the newly designed dexterous robot arm in the space environment, before installing on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station. Several Hitchhiker payloads, including the Technology Applications and Science Payload (TAS-01), the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (SEH), and the Ultraviolet Spectrograph Telescope for Astronomical Research (UVSTAR) were housed in Discovery's payload bay, (as shown in the mission patch) operating independently of crew support during the flight.

The Microgravity Vibration Isolation Mount (MIM) experiment was operated by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason. The MIM experiment is a small double-locker size device designed to isolate International Space Station payloads and experiments from disturbances created by thruster firings or crew activity. MIM was operated for 30 hours with real-time data transmission to investigators on the ground. Another experiment onboard STS-85 was the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS-01) from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) along with scientific collaborators from JPL, APL, and the Univers i ty of Maryland. SWUIS (pronounced, "swiss") was a wide-field UV imager which was used to observe comet Hale-Bopp, also depicted top right of mission patch. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Flight STS-86 Commander James Wetherbee Pilot Michael Bloomfield MS David Wolf MS Wendy Lawrence MS Jean-Loup Chrétien MS Vladimir Titov MS Scott Parazynski KSC Launch Date 25.9.1997 KSC Landing 6.10.1997 Purpose / Shuttle-Mir Main Payload Docking/Transfer

Highlights of the 10 day mission included five days of docked operations between Atlantis and Mir and the exchange of crew members Foale and Wolf to continue a permanent American presence of the Russia complex. A spacewalk retrieved the four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads which were attached to the Mir's docking module by Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford during STS-76 to characterize the environment surrounding the Mir space station. Atlantis carried the SPACEHAB double module to support the transfer of logistics and supplies for Mir and the return of experiment hardware and specimens to Earth . The seventh Mir docking mission continued the presence of a U.S. astronaut on the Russian space station with the transfer of physician David A. Wolf to Mir. Wolf became the sixth U.S. astronaut in succession to live on Mir to continue Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative effort. Foale returned to Earth after spending 145 days in space, 134 of them aboard Mir. His estimated mileage logged was 58 million miles (93 million kilometers), making his the second longest U.S. space flight, behind Shannon Lucid's record

of 188 days On July 30, NASA announced that Wendy Lawrence, originally assigned to succeed Foale on Mir, was being replaced by Dr David Wolf. The change was deemed necessary to allow Wolf to act as a backup crew member for the space walks planned over the next several months to repair Spektr. Unlike Wolf, Lawrence could not fit in the Orlan suit that is used for Russian space walks and she had not undergone space walk training. (See obvious addition of his name to mission patch) Docking of Atlantis and Mir took place at 3:58 p.m. EDT, Sept. 27, with the two mission commanders opening the spacecraft hatches at 5:45 p.m. Wolf officially joined the Mir 24 at noon EDT, Sept. 28. At the same time, Foale became a member of the STS-86 crew and began moving his personal belongings back into Atlantis. First joint U.S.-Russian extravehicular activity during a Shuttle mission, which was also the 39th in the Space Shuttle program, was conducted by Titov and Parazynski. During the five-hour, one-minute space walk on Oct. 1, the pair affixed a 121 pound (55 kg) Solar Array Cap to the docking module for future use by Mir crew members to seal off the suspected leak in Spektr's hull. Parazynski and Titov also retrieved four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads (MEEPS) from the outside of Mir and tested several components of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) jet packs. The space walk began at

1:29 p.m. EDT and ended at 6:30 p.m. During the six days of docked operations, the joint Mir 24 and STS-86 crews transferred more than four tons of material from the SPACEHAB Double Module to Mir, including approximately 1,700 pounds (771 kg) of water, experiment hardware for International Space Station Risk Mitigation experiments to monitor the Mir for crew health and safety, a gyrodyne, batteries, three air pressurization

units with breathing air, an attitude control computer and many other logistics items. The new motion control computer replaced one that had experienced problems in recent months. The crew also moved experiment samples and hardware and an old Elektron oxygen generator to Atlantis for return to Earth. Undocking took place at 1:28 p.m. EDT, Oct 3. After undocking, Atlantis performed a 46 minute fly-around visual inspection of Mir. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Flight STS-87 Commander Kevin Kregel Pilot Steven Lindsey MS Winston Scott MS Kalpala Chawla MS Takao Doi MS Leonid Kadenyuk KSC Launch Date 19.11.1997 KSC Landing 5.12.1997

Purpose / Spartan Main Payload USMP 4

STS-87 flew the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4), the Spartan-201,

the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), the EVA Demonstration Flight Test 5 (EDFT-05), the Shuttle Ozone Limb Sending Experiment (SOLSE), the Loop Heat Pipe (LHP), the Sodium Sulfur Battery Experiment (NaSBE), the Turbulent GAS Jet Diffusion (G-744) experiment and the Autonomous EVA Robotic Camera/Sprint (AERCam/Sprint) experiment. Two mid-deck experiments are the Middeck Glovbox Payload (MGBX) and the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment (CUE). The United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4) is a Spacelab project managed by Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The complement of microgravity research experiments is divided between two Mission-Peculiar Experiment Support Structures (MPESS) in the payload bay. The extended mission capability offered by the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) kit provides an opportunity for additional science gathering time. Spartan 201-04 is a Solar Physics Spacecraft designed to perform remote sensing of the hot outer layers of the sun's atmosphere or corona. The objective of the observations were to investigate the mechanisms causing the heating of the solar corona and the acceleration of the solar wind which originates in the corona. Two primary experiments are the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the White Light Coronograph (WLC) from the High Altitude Observatory. The Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF) was a sophisticated materials science facility used for studying a common method of processing semiconductor crystals called directional solidification. Solidification is the process of freezing materials. In the type of directional solidification to be used in AADSF, the liquid sample, enclosed in quartz ampoules, was slowly

solidified along the long axis. A mechanism moved the sample through varying temperature zones in the furnace. To start processing, the furnace melts all but one end of the sample towards the other. Once crystallized, the sample remains in the furnace to be examined post-flight. The solidification front is of particular interest to scientists because the flows found in the liquid material influence the final composition and structure of the solid and its properties. The Confined Helium Experiment (CHeX) provides a test of theories of the influence of boundaries on matter by measuring the heat capacity of helium as it is confined to two dimensions. The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) is a materials science solidification experiment that researchers will use to investigate a particular type of solidification called dendritic growth. Dendritic solidification is one of the most

common forms of solidifying metals and alloys. When materials crystallize or solidify under certain condition, the freeze unstably, resulting in tiny, tree-like crystalline forms called dendrites. Scientist are particularly interested in dendrite size, shape, and how the branches of the dendrites interact with each other. These characteristics largely determine the properties of the material. (Source Wikipedia)

The mission patch is helmet shaped to symbolise the EVA element of the mission. Three red lines coming out of the orbiter’s payload bay represent the astronaut symbol and the robot arm used to deploy and retrieve the Spartan satellite. The letters μg represent the microgravity science experiments. The flag of Ukraine is also included by Kadenyuk’s name.

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Intercosmos Retrospect : Bulgaria June 1988

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F.d.c’s for the issue of the sole

Soviet stamp commemorating the

flight of Soyuz TM-5 cancelled on launch day 7.6.88.

Left at Moscow and below at

Zvezdny Gorodok (Starry Town) showing the new Glavkosmos logo

in cancel and cachet

1987 Bulgarian mini-sheet issued

to commemorate 30 years of

Soviet space achievement, showing various Soviet spacecraft,

from top clockwise, Sputnik, Zond, Luna, Vostok and Mars.

In the centre of the lower stamp is

a Mir-Soyuz complex but this does

not represent the failed Soyuz 33 Soviet-Bulgarian flight as this

failed to dock with Salyut 6 in 1979.

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Intercosmos Retrospect : Afghanistan August 1988

The agreement for the joint Soviet-Afghan mission had been signed in February 1988 with the original intention to fly in 1989, but because the Soviet union was beginning to withdraw its 100,000 troops from Afghanistan in mid-May the political situation for the 1989 launch could not be guaranteed. So it is likely the early date was to ensure that Afghan puppet leader was in power during the flight as he might not have been six months later. Nevertheless training objectives had to be compromised to accommodate the new launch date. Included on the flight was the first researcher-cosmonaut—a physician Dr Valeri Polyakov—who had been a reserve for T3

and T10 having first begun training for a mission in 1972 ! Dr Polyakov remained behind on Mir with cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov when Mohmand and Lyakhov returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5. Its crew had a unique makeup, with a commander (Vladimir Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz-TM solo in the event of a rescue ship being needed to recover two cosmonauts from Mir, no flight engineer, and two inexperienced cosmonaut-researchers. The other was Intercosmos cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, from Afghanistan. Mohmand’s experiment programme was dominated by a series of observations of Afghanistan, called Shamshad. Soviet flight control did not want Mohmand to interfere with the flight procedures. On September 5 cosmonauts Alexandr Lyakhov and Abdul Ahad Mohmand undocked from Mir. They jettisoned the orbital module and made ready for de-orbit burn to return to Earth. However, unbeknownst to the cosmonauts or the Mission Control Centre in Korolev (TsUP), the guidance computer was using the docking software of the Bulgarian Mir mission in June ! The de-orbit burn did not occur at the appointed time because the infrared horizon sensor could not confirm the proper attitude. Seven minutes after the scheduled time, the sensor determined that the correct attitude had been achieved. The main engine fired, but Lyakhov shut it down after 3 seconds. A second firing 3 hours later lasted only 6 seconds. Lyakhov immediately attempted to manually de-orbit the craft, but the computer shut down the engine after 60 seconds. According to James Oberg (Secrets of Soyuz), in order to restart the automatic descent program for the second burn attempt, Lyakhov had to instruct the computer to ignore the first shutdown. It was therefore running down its checklist as though the first burn had been successful and the ship was on a normal re-entry trajectory. The next item on that checklist was to jettison the Equipment Module, which contained, among other things, the primary propulsion system – the very system they needed to de-orbit. Mohmand, disregarding a directive to sit back and let Mission Control assess the situation, had scanned the ship’s gauges and displays, and discovered that separation was going to take place in less than a minute. Lyakhov quickly disabled the program. Had he not done so, he and Mohmand would have perished, as the Soyuz Descent Module had only enough air and battery power for a couple of hours. The cosmonauts were forced to remain in orbit a further day in the cramped quarters of the Descent Module with minimal food and water and no sanitary facilities. Even if the main

engine had permitted them to do so, they would not have been able to re-dock with Mir because they had discarded the docking system along with the orbital module. Re-entry occurred as normal on September 7. After this the Soviets retained the orbital module until after deorbit burn, as they had done on the Soyuz Ferry flights. (Sources : Wikipedia, Spaceflight and Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log [1961-2006]). The flight was marked by an issue from USSR SG 5911 on

29th Augusts showing a Soyuz ferry docking with Mir-Kvant high over Earth with a symbolic handshake beneath it. Ironically the flight and stamp issue occurred as Soviet forces were forcibly subduing Afghan mujaheidein rebels / patriots on the ground ! Afghanistan issued one stamp : SG 1214

Sensationalised pool press report in The Press & Journal (Aberdeen) published on 7.9.88

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Our English member Ian Ridpath well known as a published author on Astronomy and Astrophilately presents the second of a two part article which gives you a flavour of what can be found in much more detail on his website on the historical aspect of our topic.

Astronomers Famous scientists are popular subjects for

commemorative issues, and form the largest category of pre-1957 astro stamps. The first astronomer to be

depicted philatelically was Nicolaus Copernicus, who appears on two stamps from his home country, Poland,

issued in 1923 to commemorate the 450th anniversary

of his birth. These modest little stamps are not too expensive and can be obtained from specialist eastern

European dealers. Copernicus, or memorials dedicated to him, turn up on another eight Polish issues prior to

1957. Three of these, in 1940, 1942 and 1943, were issued while Poland was under German occupation.

The first country other than Poland to show

Copernicus on a stamp was China in

1953. A portrait of

Copernicus by the Polish artist Jan

Matejko was used on this Soviet stamp from

1955 celebrating Soviet–Polish cooperation.

Another great scientist, Galileo, makes three

appearances on this list, all from his home country of Italy. Two of the issues are distinct oddities, being

issued for use in p ne um a t i c po s t a l

systems. Pneumatic

post involved placing letters in canisters

which were then shot a l o n g p i p e s b y

compressed air from one Post Office to another. Such

systems were set up in several European and American

cities, including Rome, Naples, and Milan. Italy was the only country to issue stamps specifically for pneumatic

postal use. Galileo appeared on two of the designs, from 1933 and 1945.

An attractive set commemorated the 300th anniversary

of the death of Galileo in 1942. The four stamps (which

appeared in colour on the front of our last edition)

showed Galileo teaching at the University of Padua, where he was appointed professor of mathematics in

1592; Galileo demonstrating his new telescope at

Venice in 1609; a portrait of the great scientist; and Galileo at home in Arcetri, where he was kept under

house arrest by the Inquisition from 1633 until he died.

Two other astronomers who

revolutionized our understanding of the Universe, Tycho Brahe and

Johannes Kepler, are also honoured on pre-1957 stamps. Tycho,

regarded as the g rea tes t astronomer of the pre-telescopic

era, is pictured on a Danish stamp

from 1946, the 400th anniversary of this birth. Tycho famously lost part of his nose in a

duel and replaced it with a metal insert, which can be made out on

the portrait. Kepler, a German

mathematician, used Tycho’s observations to prove that the

planets orbited the Sun in ellipses, finally overthrowing the long-

standing geocentric view of the

U n i v e r s e . H e w a s f i r s t commemorated on a stamp issued

in 1953 by Austria, a country where he taught on two occasions during his career.

Finally, one of the greatest

scientists of all time, Albert

Einstein, made his debut on an Israeli stamp in 1956, the year

after his death. Einstein’s theory of relativity was the foundation

of modern cosmology and he

r i g h t l y b e l o ng s i n a n astrophilately collection.

The World’s Oldest Astronomy and Space Stamps

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Astronautics Unsurprisingly, prior to 1957 there

were few stamps with an astronautical theme. The first,

issued by the USA, dates from 1948 and marks the centenary of Fort

Bliss, a US Army post near El Paso,

Texas. Wernher von Braun and other top German rocket scientists arrived at Fort Bliss

in 1945 after surrendering to the US Army at the end of World War II. They soon began a series of test flights

with modified V2 rockets from the nearby White Sands

Proving Ground in New Mexico, as shown on this stamp.

One of the founding fathers of

r o c k e t r y w a s K o n s t a n t i n

Tsiolkovsky, a Russian mathematics teacher who in 1903 published the

first theoretical proof that space travel by rocket was possible. He

also realized that multi-stage rockets (which he termed “rocket

trains”) would be needed to escape

from Earth, and proposed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuels, a combination

that is widely used today. Tsiolkovsky featured in a set of stamps commemorating Soviet scientists issued in

1951.

The third and final

a s t r o n a u t i c a l -themed stamp from

before 1957 was issued by Italy in

1 9 5 6 t o

commemorate the s e v e n t h

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Astronautical Congress held in Rome that year.

Prophetically, the design showed a transmitting satellite

orbiting the Earth – something that was to come true when Sputnik 1 was launched two days before the

opening of the following year’s Congress in Barcelona.

The Earth To bring our survey of pre-1957 astrophilately to a close, let us return to Earth. Although they are effects

of the atmosphere, aurorae are studied by astronomers

because of their connection with solar activity. The earliest depiction of an aurora I

can find is on a pair of Icelandic stamps from 1934, but it is not

very convincing – without the Gibbons catalogue description of it

as “monoplane and aurora” you

might be forgiven for thinking it was a cloud. Better is the aurora

seen streaking the sky over a fishing boat in a 1941 Norwegian

stamp issued in support of the

fishermen’s families relief fund. On

a French stamp from 1949, the curtain-like folds of an aurora curl

in the sky over a party of Antarctic explorers.

Astronomical observations are a

fundamental part of surveying and

geophysics. Not until the middle of the 18th century was the location

of the Earth’s equator established with reasonable accuracy, due largely to a French

expedition that included Charles Marie de La

Condamine, Pierre Bouguer, and Louis Godin. A new country, Ecuador (named after the equator), later

arose in the part of South America where the French scientists

worked, and in 1936 issued a set of stamps to commemorate the

bicentenary of the arrival of the

French expedition. Two other Ecuadorean stamps, from 1949

(right) and 1953, depict the monument that was erected in

1936 to mark the supposed

equatorial line, although modern GPS measurements place the true

equator about 250 metres to the north of it.

Finally, moving polewards, I particularly like a reflective

scene on a 1945 stamp from

Greenland in which an Eskimo in a kayak, with the midnight

Sun poised on the distant horizon.

Acknowledgements and further reading It is a pleasure to thank George Fox and Margaret

Morris for sharing their extensive knowledge of astro stamps during the preparation of my list.

You can find the complete list, with fuller descriptions SG numbers and colour scans, on my web pages:

h t t p : / /www. i an r i dpa th . com/s t amps /oldest.htm

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“ Our Earth is one of milliards of planets which suffered the fate to carry all worries, troubles and sorrow, to produce living creatures of a higher nature gifted with sense and to take care of their spread over other galaxies … I do not want to talk somebody into it, but, I am convinced of it. Since my early years and the following forty years, after I got contact with another form of civilization by a kind of ‘radiation energy’, I saw my task clearly … Our science, however, is not to blame as we only find ourselves in the sixth stadium of development. (Konstantin Tsiolkowski : The Cosmic Philosophy 1932.

Quote from ref 2* The Soviet UFO Dossier by Col Dr Marina Popovich)

UFO’s, (Unidentified Flying Objects), in French, OVNI

(Objets volants non identifiés), are much in our

thoughts. Type the phrase ‘UFO’ into a web search and no fewer than 9,940,000 hits appear and for the

abbreviation ‘OVNI’ another 1,960,000. Some months ago the French Space stamp trader Lollini in one of its

monthly reviews published a rather complete list of all

UFO related stamps and sheets. Hence, this subject may be considered as an interesting field at the margins of

astrophilately. Therefore I’d like to show what has been issued so far and tell you something about the

background and related stories.

The topic of UFOs splits responders into two

incompatible positions : either you believe in UFO’s, you are ‘believers’, or you do not, and are ‘non-believers’. In

order to clear up things from the beginning I myself am extremely sceptical about the UFO phenomenon and

thus belong to the latter group. Together with a great

amount of unprejudiced scientists I believe that nearly all UFO connected manifestations in the end can be

accounted for by one or more scientific explanations such as: weather balloons, light reflections, also in the

optics used, atmospheric disturbances, temperature

inversions, air or glass reflections, (ball) lighting, St.Elmo’s fire, rotating plasma clouds, (experimental)

aeroplanes, laser and light shows, marsh gases, bright stars and planets such as Sirius and Venus, falling

meteorites and today certainly also falling space junk.

Furthermore, certain observations also can be explained

by reflections of birds and airplanes such as the U-2 in its early days. Besides that, certainly for some more

intensive observations, physical explanations are obvious.

A very peculiar explanation is given by Julien

Weverbergh (ref. 8) who in his – for the most part rather

curious – book points to a great many similarities between hurricanes, the area where they are most

observed and the observation of UFO’s. Based upon these similarities a couple of phenomena have coincided

with the appearance of a UFO, providing a good explanation:

- UFO’s are often observed in places where also

many hurricanes are active - UFO’s move along ‘straight’ lines over large

distances - Many UFO’s show the shape of a vortex

- UFO’s mostly are twisting around their axis.

- UFO’s mostly are accompanied by phenomena of strong atmospheric electricity

- As with hurricanes UFO’s show often also heavy black clouds

Unfortunately some other phenomena related to UFO’s

are more difficult to explain by the hurricane theory.

- UFO’s appear from nowhere and disappear suddenly: sometimes they split and sometimes

they flow together - UFO’s brighten as metal surfaces,

- Together with visible light UV-light is reflected,

- UFO’s stand still at one place and then suddenly can increase speed tremendously

- UFO’s show light phenomena UFO’s evade aeroplanes when they are chased.

But in a way these phenomena are not completely at

odds with the hurricane theory. However, it is a pity that

the author of the book does not show the same distance to his subject in the following pages.

Yet even from present common sense there still remain a

couple of observations for which up to today no decisive

explanation can be given and of course these are the most interesting phenomena.

What are UFO’s? A definition of UFO’s is given by one of the most

prominent UFO investigators, Dr.J.Allen Hynek (1910-1986) in his book from 1972:

“A UFO is the reported sighting of an object or lights seen in the sky or on land, whose appearance, trajectory, actions, motions, lights, and colours do not have a logical, conventional or natural explanation, and which cannot be explained, not only by the original witness, but by scientists or technical experts who try to make a common sense identification after examining the evidence”.

The Limits of Space Travel By John Beenen PART 1: INTRODUCTION UFO

* all Refs will be detailed at the end of the series.

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And that immediately identifies the problem. Persons

observing a UFO, certainly from a very short distance,

often are so full of emotions that a neutral observation is virtually impossible. Moreover, the phenomenon

mostly only occurs very briefly and once so that, certainly in the case of lights, proof based upon later

scientific investigation is not possible.

Sometimes, however, objects have been seen on radar

or pictures have been taken of them. Strangely enough nearly always these photos are out of focus or nothing

can be seen on the photograph after it is developed. Explanations for this phenomenon have been given but

most of the time they do not convince completely.

Of course, our planet has not been visited by millions of

extraterrestrial creatures, in which case sufficient proof in the form of identifiable remains would be left behind.

This phenomenon is known as

‘Fermi’s Paradox’. Enrico Fermi

(1901-1954), a famous nuclear physician, who among other things

stood at the start of the development of nuclear energy and the atomic

bomb, explained in 1946 that the

Universe contained hundreds of milliards of stars. If even a very small

fraction of them were encircled by planets which had developed

technological civilizations, there must be a very large number of such

civilizations. If any of these

civilizations produced cultures which colonized over interstellar distances,

even at a small fraction of the speed of light, the Universe should have

been completely colonized in no more

than a few million years. Since the Universe is billions of years old Earth

should have been visited and colonized long ago. The absence of any evidence for such visits is the Fermi

Paradox.

Frank Drake, President of the SETI Institute (Search for

Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), even has developed a formula by which via calculation of eight parameters he

tried to calculate how many extraterrestrial civilizations exist. The drawback of this formula is that most of the

factors can be estimated only within a very wide area,

so that everybody may obtain the result which he likes best.

I support the opinion that all observations, even those

which are ‘non-identifiable’ today, finally shall receive a

scientific explanation, but it is a fact that some observations even using the most advanced techniques,

cannot be explained at this time.

Unfortunately, after experts have investigated many

observations, it has been proven that after many years

many stories have been shown to be not completely reliable anymore. Witnesses were not traceable or

were mentally less stable than initially was admitted; documents by which the event was ‘proven’ could not

be found; objects had disappeared or after analysis were shown to be made from common material;

statements were conflicting or very colourful and some

witnesses finally admitted that it was one great joke.

But one very striking and different example is that of the lost crew of a Russian Antonov airplane in

1961. The plane took off from a base at Sverdlovsk

with a crew of seven members. After a short flight of about 150 km it suddenly disappeared from the radar

screens. After investigation by a couple of helicopters and a large number of troops the plane was found

back on a tiny spot in the woods completely surrounded by trees. It looked if the plane had just

been dropped there from above. The crew was

nowhere. When the engine was started it ran like normal. In the near surroundings initially no traces

were found but about 100m from the plane a circle of about 30m of flattened grass was observed. The case

remains unsolved because the only witnesses, the

crew, were lost forever.

However, another source (www.skepticfiles.org) reports a similar case in the neighbourhood of Tobelak

in Siberia where a small transport plane with four passengers, still with two hours of fuel on board was

found without a trace of the crew and the passengers.

Also there in a distance of about 100m a circle of burned grass and broken soil was found. Both

incidents cannot be confirmed. Even the standard book on Soviet UFO’s (ref.2) gives no indication whatsoever.

Hence it has to be supposed that this is one of the

‘urban legends’ which makes UFO history so difficult to believe.

Though the observations on UFO’s show many

differences some characteristics are quite similar:

- With a few exceptions mostly UFO’s fly without a sound or with a slight whistling or buzzing

sound, even with speeds far exceeding the supersonic.

- UFO’s accelerate like mad and take right angels without standstill

- UFO’s sometimes become invisible, spilt in two

or melt together - UFO’s often radiate very penetrating light

beams - UFO’s seem invulnerable to bullets.

Historical perspective Some events from the past are a mystery. At the end

of the 1950’s Erich von Däniken had much success with his book entitled: “Was God an Astronaut ?” in

which he described a great many inexplicable

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excavations and remains

such as the Inca Ruins of

Tiahuanacu (Bolivia), the chart of Piri Reis from 1513,

the launch site (?) Samaibata Bahoia near

Santa Cruz (Bolivia), the ‘lines’ of Nazca (Maldives 9324 MLD 5B) and a couple of

representations of humans on rocks and cave drawings

with helmets (?), strange objects and space suits (?). Also in the mountains of Armenia a true astronomic

encyclopaedia was discovered originating from around 3000 B.C. but showing details which could not have

been observed by the known means from that time.

Also very puzzling was the discovery of an instrument

with 33 wheels and a differential in Antikythera dating from the first century B.C., which was found in 1900

under water. In Csésiphon – why have all those sites such extraterrestrial names? - in Iraq by Wilhelm König

in 1938 an archetype of a dry battery was found dating

from 200 B.C., for some people proof of an extraterrestrial civilization, but for me proof that the

technological abilities of our ancestors of thousands of years ago did not differ so much from ours today.

“Mysteries of the Universe” Some of these historical sites have been portrayed on a

stamp and are depicted on a series of souvenir sheets or blocks from The Maldives entitled: “16 Mysteries of the Universe”, some of which are shown here (and on page

40 in colour.)

The 16 blocks do not all refer to UFO’s, but also to other unexplained phenomena, yet they are so interesting that

I shall discuss all sixteen:

1. Bermuda Triangle (6B)

Though several well publicized losses of ships and aircraft have occurred in this region, the debate still

continues as to whether this is the coincidence of a heavily travelled area or an unknown phenomenon.

2. UFO over Columbus, Ohio in 1973 In 1973 while flying

Columbus, Ohio, four Army officers nearly collided with

an unknown object. The

illustration is based on sketches made by the

officers

3. UFO at Washington 1947 (3B)

While flying over Washington State (NW of the USA) in June 1947 Kenneth Arnold saw a group of nine disc

shaped aircraft moving at tremendous speed. His later description of the craft gave birth to the term ’Flying

Saucer’. The picture can be found on a block issued by Tanzania (9900 TAN 14B) and Maldives (9324 MLD 3B),

both shown later on in the article.

4. Black Holes (1B)

It has been theorized that a spacecraft could use the

extraordinary gravitational pull of a black hole to slingshot it into space, thus allowing it to travel farther

and faster than it could on his own.

5. Crystal skulls from Mitchell-Hedges found in 1924 in the Maya ruins of Lubaantun in Belize, weight 5,3 kg

(2B).

These relics are believed to be of Aztec or Mayan origin but little is known about them. It appears that

they were created by an ancient culture that would not have had either the tools nor the skills required to

create them.

6. Explosion at Tsjernobyl

On 25th of April 1986 the No.4 nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union exploded. It took

hundreds of helicopter missions dropping thousands of tons of sand, clay and boron into the inferno to

extinguish the flames. The mystery here lies in the

long term effects of the radioactive cloud that spread over most of Europe and deposited large quantities of

contaminated particles.

A much more interesting explanation of the mystery I

found some years ago in a magazine. In the region of the disaster from old times a story circulated that the

world would be destroyed by a flower descending from the air, making all the water in the region undrinkable.

The name of the flower: ‘Chernobyl’.

7. Crop circles in Great-Britain (4B)

For over 15 years mysterious crop circles have appeared in the field throughout Southern England.

Laid out in various sizes and patterns, they have long baffled experts and have given rise to explanations to

ball lightning. Recently, two artists have come forward

to take credit as the hoaxers responsible, yet to many the mystery remained unsolved partly due to the fact

that over 2000 circles have been reported worldwide.

8. The Plain of Nazca (5B)

The giant figures of animals and birds cut into the ground at Nazca, Peru can only be seen from the air

and may be as much as 2000 years old.

9. The Loch Ness Monster With over 3000 sightings, and dozens of photographs

movies and sonar scans “Nessie” still remains a

mystery. Some believe it may be a Plesiosaurus, a giant reptile of the age of dinosaurs. However, it has

been proven that the most well-known photo of the ‘monster’ was contrived and I myself am sure that this

is a great hoax.

10. The Disappearance of Atlantis and the ideas of

Plato Greek philosopher Plato gave the first written accounts

of Atlantis and its fiery death in the eruption of a volcano.

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11. Stonehenge

The giant circle of megaliths each

weighing as much as 45 tons was erected in three phases over a span of

almost 1000 years. Though many theories exist no one knows the

purpose of Stonehenge.

12. The Terrible Snowman from the Himalaya, The Yeti

Giant footprints have been encountered in the Himalayan mountain snows since 1887. Sometimes 18

inches in length and 7 inches wide, the tracks have been attributed to the Yeti or Abominable Snowman.

13. The Piramides of Gizeh For more than 40 centuries the Pyramids at Giza have

amazed and mystified mankind. The great Pyramid of Cheops in the centre is flanked on the right by

Chephren and on the left by Mycerinus. Cheops alone contains over 2 million block each weighing from 2½ to

15 tons.

14. The disappearance of the crew of The Maria

Celeste in 1872 In December 1872 The Maria Celeste was found

drifting of the coast of the Azores. The ship was

abandoned, yet there was no hint of trouble in the log book, the cargo was safely stowed, and the galley and

quarters were in order. For over a century the fate of the captain and the crew of the ship have remained an

intriguing mystery.

15. The explosion of the Zeppelin Hindenburg on 6

May 1937 On May 6th 1937 the German Zeppelin Hindenburg

exploded into flame and crashed while approaching its mooring tower in Lakehurst, New Jersey. While there

are several plausible causes for the catastrophe, it is

still a mystery as to what really caused the demise of the giant airship.

16. Ghosts in English Castles

Numerous Ghosts and spectres are said to haunt the

castles and mansions of England, including Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London, and a number of

ghosts in the Brede Mansion in Sussex.

To me these 16 mysterious cases have been rather arbitrarily chosen and some of these ‘mysteries’

certainly might be exchanged for more relevant cases,

but the whole concept is intriguing.

Historically speaking there are a great many cases known – the above included – for which the

explanation is thought by some people to be of

extraterrestrial origin and caused by entities visiting our world. As such, the ‘lines’ in the Plain of Nasca are

seen as landing strips for spacecrafts as the ‘launching site’’ of Santa Cruz in Bolivia.

Certainly, there are spots on Earth where the activity of

the soil and magnetism is stronger that usual. The

Bermuda Triangle seems to be an example of this and for instance, Stonehenge. Furthermore, in the

neighbourhood of Stonehenge more ‘spacecraft’ have been observed than at other places in England. Also in

the south of the Pacific Ocean such a spot is detected, as well as south of Japan in the Pacific. In the Soviet

Union a spot of increased activity is observed in the

neighbourhood of the city of Perm in the Urals.

Above Loladoff disc and below wall painting in Val Camonica A interesting website with a high paranormal content

(www.crystallinks.com/) shows an abundance of examples varying from pictures and statues of helmet

bearing ‘Gods’ and ‘Aliens’ right up to flying saucers on paintings. Very well-known is a picture of some kind of

an alien on a dish 6000 or 12000 of age found together

with 715 objects in 1938 in the caves of Bayan Kara Ula in Nepal. It shows an ‘alien’ just as we like to portrait

him/her today.

The dish is named after its discoverer, the Polish

professor Loladoff, the Loladoff dish and is on display in a museum at Bampu de Xian in China. Another source,

however, says that this ‘discovery is a contrived artefact, so caution is advised !

The figures on the cave painting from Val Camonica in

Italy look a little bit as astronauts. Other pictures from

the same drawings are, however, much less distinct so that the picture shown at the site as mentioned

certainly underwent some photoshopping.

On a fresco (right) from the 14th century, as

shown here, a spacecraft may be depicted, but I

myself think that a more

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trivial or religious explanation is more probable.. But

there are other such pictures on mediaeval and later

paintings.

Very surprising are the representations on pictures from 3000 years ago found at the New Temple of the New

Empire at Abydos in Egypt, on which a

h e l i c o p t e r , a

submarine and an airplane seem to be

engraved. See mini-sheet from Antigua and Barbuda (10100 ANB 47B) on page 40, from which this is an extract. Although an explanation of an extraterrestrial

visit looks attractive, it is my opinion that these pictures have a, for us unknown, religious character.

Supporters of visits by entities from outside our world

also think that in Holy Books, such as the Bible, Koran and the Indian Mahabaratha, there are many references

to the appearance of extraterrestrial entities on Earth.

Van Däniken has devoted a whole chapter to this subject. Mostly the ‘Gods’ appear or disappear riding on

wagons covered in smoke and fire : in the Bible especially the descriptions referring to the Prophet

Ezekiel are favourites. I do think this is very convincing

and it seems what is taken literally is meant as metaphor.

Yet there exist old texts which at least create doubts.

Ancient Chinese chronicles mention an Emperor Hwang-Ti, who reigned in the 26 century B.C. in the region of

the Great Winding of the Hwang-Ho, the Yellow River.

This Emperor actually did exist the last year of his government being 2592 B.C. Hwang-Ti and his men

were descended from the sky. They did their utmost to teach men how to build ships, dig wells, manufacture

musical instruments and apply acupuncture. The

Emperor possessed a strange craft on three legs. Sometimes it changed into a ‘dragon flying through the

air’. From time to time Hwang-Ti and his men flew away. The appliance was able to float and to become

light or heavy. (ref. 2)

And in the ancient Indian epic we read: “At dawn Rama

took his seat in the heavenly wagon Poesjpaka … and prepared for the flight. The vehicle had two storeys with

many rooms and windows. When the colossus became airborne it made a prolonged tone. The heavenly wagon

lighted as fire in a summer night. It looked like a comet

in heaven and glowed like red fire” (ref 2).

Also in the Middle Ages and later ‘indications’ were found for the appearance of UFOs. Thus, on a German

woodcut from 1561 a large object can be seen which

with a bit of good will could be seen as a UFO. Also some others can be seen in the air (Grenada WB 55).

Well-known also is an observation of a UFO above the city of Hamburg, Germany on November 4th 1697 and a

strange phenomenon in Orenburg in Russia in 1824

where twice little symmetrical parts of metal fell from

the sky.

Yet I support the opinion that an extraterrestrial origin

of these phenomena does not do justice to the technological capacities of our ancestors. As in every

society sometimes genius and prophets are born far in advance of their time and can do things which stagger

contemporaries. Aristarch of Samos (310-230 B.C)

(Greece WB 6) knew already that Earth was orbiting Sun and that it was not the other way round. Finally,

5000 years in the history of mankind is still a rather short period, so much wiser we have not become

today.

At last, proof for extraterrestrial influence often is

taken out of context from texts, findings and drawings especially cited in semi-religious, sectarian,

paranormal, metaphysical and other rather elusive circles.

Moreover, these kind of sources often connect everything which is somewhat unclear to UFO’s or

visits from extraterrestrials, from the pyramids of Egypt, to the stones of Stonehenge, to the statues at

Easter Island, to the murder of President Kennedy up

to the appearance of Virgin Mary at Fatima, which does not enhance their credibility for the average

down-to-earth observer.

Classification of UFO’s

Accordingly, a four-part classification of UFOs has been made by the aforementioned Dr.Hynek;

I. Light phenomena without further effect II. Light phenomena causing physical or physic

effects on the observer or the surroundings of the observer, such as the inexplicable cut out

of engines, physical feelings, warmth, panic from animals and visible traces on the ground

(imprints) or vegetation (burning)..

III. Observations of entities in or around the UFO

Later a fourth category was added: IV. ‘Abductions’ (in French “enlèvements’), where

the observer claims to be taken into the UFO

and often inexplicably loses a part of time or is dropped on places far away from the object.

In particular these last two categories require a

thorough investigation to exclude jokers, pseudo-

religious fanatics and mentally instable figures.

In the following parts of this series I shall take you extensively into these categories.

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ORBIT ORBIT