RECOVERY SHIP COVER & POSTMARK VARIETIES

This site is maintained as a hobby by Dr Ross J. Smith and was started in November 2008. It aims to list all know Recovery, Tracking and Communication ship covers for the US Manned Space Program from Project Mercury to ASTP plus the recovery effort for STS-51L and show scans of them. In particular it lists many different cachets for each mission as well as documenting variations on postmarks, especially for the Primary Recovery ships. It also eventually will contain articles on many areas related to the recovery effort.

 

Please Note : Have You Seen This Missing Cover

 

Synopsis
   
Mission Covers
  Mercury Precursors
  Mercury
  Gemini
  MOL
  Apollo
  Skylab
  ASTP
  STS-51L - The Challenger Disaster
  Shuttle SRB Recovery and Support Ship Covers
  Training Missions
 

Orion

 

Artemis

  SpaceX
  Other Recovery Ship Covers
  Captain and Crew Covers
  Launch Security Covers
   
Other Covers & Items
  Apollo 15 Cover Carried to the Moon
  Beck Error, Crew and Unusual Covers
  Beck Printed Address Covers
  Fakes
  Interesting Non-Recovery Ship Covers
  Interesting Recovery Cachets
  Interesting Recovery Photos and Drawings
  PRS Hand Cancels
  Recently Sold Interesting Covers and Other Items
  Stamps, Minisheets & Other Items
   
Information
  General Articles
  Primary Recovery Ship Captains
  Main Recovery Helicopter Pilots & Co-pilots
  Primary Recovery Ship Crew Sizes
  Example Gemini Mission Reports
  Example Apollo Mission Reports
  Training Missions and Exercises
  US Domastic Postal Rates
   
Other
  Request for Input on Interesting Covers etc
  Useful Sites
  References
   
Latest Additions ( 9 December 2024)

 

Notes:
1) Dates are in day/month/year format
2) The names maroon & magenta are often used to describe the same colour
3) colour1-colour2 indicates a multicolour cachet : colour1, colour2 indicates the cachet can either colour1 or colour2
4) Beck Cachets - Numbers are listed only where significant numbers were postmarked by the appropriate ship - a full list of all know Beck cachets can be found at http://beck.ormurray.com/

Abbreviations:
DNP - Did Not Particpate
Oth - Other Involvement
PRS - Primary Recovery Ship
SRS - Secondary Recovery Ship
CRS - Contingency Recovery Ship
TS - Tracking Ship
A "T-" in front of a ship designation indicates that the respective ship is operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and that it is manned by a civilian crew.

 

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Last modified on 24 March 2023