Space

2016: Innovation in Aerospace, 150 Years of the Royal Aeronautical Society

The International Space Station has been whizzing across our skies for a long time, I remember when it was first activated looking out for it and being very excited as it tracked across my vision, now it is so much part of our lives that it may just be chance I notice a bright light moving quickly overhead in the dark night. 

It is a wonderful piece of engineering, vision and international cooperation but it needs brute power to get both people and equipment into space.

1978: Soviet-East German Space Flight

Here is one of the early Soyuz rockets being assembled, Soyuz 31.  The destination was the Salyut 6 Space Station and it would carry the first German in space, Sigmund Jähn, accompanied by a Russian cosmonaut making his third flight,Valery Bykovsky. They swapped Soyuz craft with the long duration crew on Salyut and returned to earth in Suyuz 29.

The other stamps in the set show: 15k - a space photograph of the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia, which at the time would be mostly in the Soviet Union and the 32k -  undocking from the space station.

1991: Europa: Space

Of course no trip into space would be complete without calling in at the moon.  Guernsey chose to combine their set of space stamps with events on earth so 1969 saw the inauguration of Guernsey's independent post office and the first moon walk.  On the subject of space stamps I like Rich Cooper's ending paragraph on 'Pushing the Envelope' -  which he wrote for NASA's 50th birthday in 2008

"For 50 years, NASA has opened a universe of accomplishments, knowledge and possibilities once thought unimaginable. As powerful as they all may be, they can all still fit on something as small as a postage stamp. Just imagine what the next 50 years will bring to your mailbox.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Space - Boldly Go to See It On A Postcard