PRECURSOR MERCURY RECOVERY SHIP COVER & POSTMARK VARIETIES

Big Joe 1 - 9 September 1959


Big Joe 1 Launch



Spacecraft Returned to Port

Recovery Force Ships

Ship

Type

Designation Covers

Atlantic

USS Strong

PRS - Destroyer

DD-758

N

USS Borie

SRS - Destroyer

DD-704

N

USS Harlan R. Dickson

SRS - Destroyer

DD-708

N

USS Spiegel Grove

SRS - Dock Landing Ship

LSD-32

N

USS Power

SRS - Destroyer

DD-839

N

USS Turner

SRS - Destroyer

DDR-834

N

7 Smaller Atlantic Missile Range Recovery Craft

Various

Various

N

Notes:
1) Rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral.
2) The capsule landed 490 nm short of the planned landing point and about midway between two destroyers. It took almost 8 hours before the USS Strong arrived to recover the capsule.

 

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