ASTP naval and Apollo splashdown covers
Robert (Bob) Boudwin is one of the most famous dealers in area of space cachets and serviced covers, sometimes Bob’s covers bear the labels with his address, in other cases - overprinting. Basically these are simple black and white cachets, published in large quantities and available for small money. In addition to the dedicated ASTP cachets, Bob Boudwin serviced covers at various facilities directly or indirectly involved in the project. This is his naval series. Cancellations: 15, 17 July - Cape Canaveral, July 24 - Kunia Honolulu.
serviced aerogramme
inscribed by Rear-Admiral Ralf S. Wentworth Commander of Manned Spacecraft Recovery Force Pacific
crew transfer
USS New Orleans big stamp
Salvage vessel gained publicity during the operation of Challenger recovery in 1986
not a Bob Boudwin cachet but a nice serviced cover
Morris Beck began to create his own cachets and covers back in 1943, while studying at school. He is considered the most eminent creator of the naval covers, producing about 2000 various cachets during his career. His covers are in demand, and many are considered rarities. In our story, he delivered four variants of cachets. Two were printed on original Beck’s envelopes and the other two were used to be stamped anywhere. Most of the Beck’s ASTP covers have Skylab or Mariner stamp; you can find much less with the ASTP stamps, issued July 15, 1975.
Commander of Manned Spacecraft Recovery Force Pacific
Another variation of mailed cover
printing error - missing red color
quite unusual for Beck's covers
Missing "ASTP" at the upper left corner (above Apollo spaceship)
Commander of Manned Spacecraft Recovery Force Atlantic
printing error - missing yellow color
Copy of Beck's 999 cachet on the serviced cover
Doris Gold cachet
USNS Vanguard. Unlike USSR, US had no pure "scientific" fleet of tracking ships and all vessels that supported space flights, were of so-called - "dual-use" and belonged to the Navy. USNS Vanguard - a former civilian tanker SS Mission San Ferdnando, launched in 1943, then served as military transport and after extensive modernization appeared in 1965 as tracking station for Apollo program, USNS Vanguard. It gained its fame and love during Skylab and ASTP programs, especially following a revolution in Madagascar in early 1975, which resulted in NASA loss of tracking station in Tananarive. Some of the functions were transferred to ATS-6, communication satellite, and some fell on USNS Vanguard and ARIA planes. For some reason, the ship has been marked by 5! own ASTP cachets.
nice captains cover serviced at Balboa on July 15, 1975
USNS Vanguard stamped cachets on the USS New Orleans cover
Letter of the ship Master saying that it does not have own post office and all mail goes via APO/FPO
very uncommon cover with USNS Vanguard cachet and Greenbelt slogan postmark
USNS Redstone (T-AGM-20) like USNS Vanguard, was remade from the civil tanker SS Mission De Pala. After sailing in various seas and serving in a couple of wars, it was taken by the Navy for a reconversion program to fit US space needs and in 1965 formed as a tracking station. The main objective was to support Apollo flights to the Moon, and then everything else in its turn - Skylab, ASTP, Shuttles, until it was scrapped in1993. In ASTP philately area USNS Redstone holds a modest place with one type of cachet that comes in different colors.
red cachet - very uncommon for ASTP covers
Art-piece by artist, collector and a friend - Alec Bartos. The handmade cachet of Apollo splashdown on the Bob Boudwin cover, postmarked on USS New Orleans.
Alec is the author and creator of the most outstanding and unique cachets I've ever seen. His artworks can be checked at:
The most intriguing part of the naval covers story is of cause USS New Orleans cancellations and covers taken aboard while the ship performed Apollo recovery. Following the philatelic misfortune of Apollo 15, no ship-board post activities were allowed on the day of splashdown, thus most available covers were postmarked on July 25th. Though some covers exist for the earlier dates (but I don’t have them). These covers came from three respectable dealers – Sean Masaar, Bob Boudwin and Reuben Ramkissoon. Also “crew” covers exist, some of them have ASTP stamps issued Jul 15th. Some of the covers carried aboard bear only relevant inscription and regular San Francisco cancellation.
more information on the ASTP PRS covers can be found on the Dr Ross Smith great website
USS New Orleans postcard used for onboard cancellations
Reuben Ramkissoon postcard with stamped Beck's cachet cancelled Jul 25
same postcard serviced on Sep 11, 1975
Reuben Ramkissoon card carried aboard the ship during recovery and postmarked in San Francisco Jul 24.
Sean Masaar cover - Beck's 998 cachet + USS New Orleans cancellation
Sean Masaar cover with Beck's stamped cachet
USS New Orleans ASTP cover with Tom Stafford and Vance Brand signatures although Slayton's signature is missing, this cover has a more than perfect design
American Philatelic Society cover.
American Philatelic Society cover.
crew cover of postmaster
Bob Boudwin USS New Orleans cover with small stamped inscription and signature: "Carried Aboard by R. Boudwin 7-25-75 10:00 A.M. Upon Return to Port. Prime Ship Apollo-Soyuz Mission Official Ship Posting"
Another example of Bob Boudwin cover with TF-130 stamped cachet
Lyndon Johnson Space Center Stamp Club cover
Lyndon Johnson Space Center Stamp Club cover
serviced cover by unknown German dealer
USS New Orleans postmarked Aug 15, 1975
USS New Orleans postmarked Aug 15, 1975
USS New Orleans big stamp
Just interesting PRS cachet with Kunia, HI postmark
A "perfect" Sean Masaar cover for Swim Helo, signed by HS-6 and Apollo crew. The cover bears HS-6 power seal and ASTP stamp.
Recovery was made by anti-submarine helicopter squadron HelAntiSubRon SIX (HS-6) crews. Various combinations of covers exist. Although very uncommon, some bear USS New Orleans postmarks others received late cancellations.
Message attached: We regret the late cancellation date on your envelope as your letter was received after the splashdown date. However the envelope was flown aboard the pick-up helicopter by a pick-up crew. HS-6
USS New Orleans late postmark - Aug 28, 1975
another example of USS New Orleans late postmark - Aug 28, 1975 this cover has a "helicopter" format but was never filled in
A group of recovery cachets.
The last two covers show parachuted ocean splash, christened “crazy cachet” for its non-realistic featuring:
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A single parachute - instead of the actual three parachutes.
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Parachutes attached to the Apollo service module – which was actually jettisoned prior to command module re-entry.
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Landing in the ocean – check out the size of the "splash" into the ocean – as tall as the service module!
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"USA" would be upside down when the command module was on the launch pad – never seen that in a launch pad photo!
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Splashdown into the ocean is "capsule first" putting the astronauts under water – don't think it happened that way.
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This cachet was probably produced by Stan Henderson (© collectSpace.com)
Apollo splashdown site
Nice naval covers with ASTP theme, though not related to recovery operations or ASTP in general.
Special notice re USNS Range Sentinel - though the covers with Jul 15, 1975 Cape Canaveral cancellation are not uncommon (like example with the red emblem), the ship did not participate in Apollo-Soyuz project or any other manned space flight project. USNS Range Sentinel was tasked with tracking and monitoring of the NAVY ballistic missiles launches - Poseidon, Polaris, Traident.
USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) was a command and control ship of US 7th fleet capable of supporting space communications. In summer 1975 it was positioned in San Diego for post-deployment stand-down. Taking into account that USS New Orleans (LPH-11) was belonging to the 7th fleet and operating from the same San Diego just leased by NASA for Apollo recovery support, I can propose that it was reporting and maintaining communications with USS Blue Ridge. Though this fact cannot put the later into the collectable ASTP inventory but still there is a nice naval souvenir with USS Blue Ridge cachet and postmark on the docking date – Jul 17, 1975.