Postage Stamps In Outer Space

No, there is no known post office in outer space, but there have been some postage stamps that have made it there.The crew of the Apollo 15 space mission had a successful mission on all accounts; that is until they returned back to earth. Their reputations were tarnished when it was discovered that one of the astronauts had made a deal to take 398 First Day Covers hidden in his space suit on the flight.

Each astronaut was promised $7000 to sign the covers and to keep mum about the secret mission to the moon. Upon their return home, the First Day covers were distributed to H. Walter Eiermann who then gave them to a stamp dealer in Germany. The covers sold on average for $1500 each.

Realizing their error in their ways, the crew of Apollo 15 did decide to not accept any money for the Covers that they had brought into space. Once Scott heard that the stamp dealer was selling the covers, he asked that they be stopped immediately. NASA eventually got word of the sale of the Covers and confiscated the additional 298 covers from Scott. I wonder where those covers are today. Most likely they are locked in a vault someplace. It would be amazing to own the first postage stamps to travel to outer space.

Each crew member was reprimanded for their lack of good judgment in the “Stamp Affair”….as Congress called it. It makes you wonder what other items have secretly traveled throughout the stars.

Personally, I think that sending postage stamps into space sounds like a great way for NASA to help fund their space programs.