P.O. Box Moon Base 1

Space shuttle Discovery launched successfully this week and astronauts are already hard at work at the international space station. In 1960 President John F. Kennedy fired America's imagination by proclaiming that the US would be first to the moon. In 1969 Neil Armstrong took that "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" on the lunar surface. Last week NASA announced plans to build and inhabit a permanent moon base by 2024!

It's been not quite 50 years since America's fledgling space program got off the ground with President Dwight D. Eisenhower's signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act in 1958. The Act established NASA and launched America's entry into the space race. Begun as an alarmed response to the Soviet's 1957 launching of the first manmade satellite, Sputnik 1, the initial development of the US space program relied heavily on German rocket technology brought to the US by Wernher von Braun during World War II. Regarded as the father of the US space program, von Braun became a naturalized citizen after the war. (Read more on Wikipedia.)

The Mercury rocket program of the 1950s readied NASA for the first launch of an American into orbit. John Glenn orbited the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the 5-hour Friendship 7 flight. I remember being riveted to our tiny black and white TV, Walter Cronkite's sonorous voice filling the void, while we waited to see if Glenn would return alive. We sat on the edge of our chairs as the frogmen swam to the capsule and popped the hatch, cheering in our living rooms as Glenn emerged and was ferried to the waiting aircraft carrier. In those days the uncertainty and danger of space travel were very real.

In the 1960s the Gemini program increased our space endurance and skills leading to the Apollo flights as we stretched to reach the moon. With the launch of the shuttle Columbia in 1981, NASA realized its dream of reusable vehicles and we took our first step toward the stars. In the 1990s collaborative efforts with Russian and European space agencies became the norm and today multi-national astronauts build and live in the Mir International Space Station.

In the early days, television brought each space flight into our living rooms. We delighted in watching astronauts tumble about their tiny cockpits in zero gravity, floating food and tools to each other. They were our heroes, bold adventurers charting the unknown. Gradually the amazing became commonplace as NASA's successes mounted. It took the occasional tragedy to remind us of the dangers astronauts face as they push mankind's horizons outward.

Half a century ago. outside the realm of science fiction. who could have predicted that Americans would be playing on Mars and preparing to live on the moon? County Stamp Center salutes the space program and the astronauts who "boldly go where no one has gone before." We offer myriad stamps commemorating the space program and its heroes in America and around the world. Just click the post title to view a complete listing. The stamp featured was issued by Micronesia and honors previous missions of the shuttle Discovery (click the link to purchase). If there's a youngster on your gift list, what better way to introduce the world of stamp collecting than with stamps celebrating the wondrous adventures of space exploration. Visit the County Stamp Center website; we have everything you need to get started. And in 2024, check our website for first day covers postmarked Moon Base 1!