Geek Trivia: Air (and space) mail

by Jay Garmon | May 29, 2007 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Jay Garmon, Missile Mail, U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, missile, Geek Trivia Newsletter

Takeaway: What stamp-collecting item did the crew of Apollo 11 secretly produce?

Editor's note: Because the Trivia Geek couldn't be bothered to account for the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, we've been forced to dig into our archives to present this Classic Geek, which originally ran on June 7, 2005. Look for fresh Geek Trivia on June 5, 2007.

For anyone who's ever had trouble receiving express or overnight mail, just be thankful that one of the U.S. Navy's late-1950s solutions to the problem never caught on -- because, if it had, you could be ducking unarmed cruise missiles right now. On June 8, 1959, roughly 48 years ago, the U.S. submarine Barbero conducted the first and last test of so-called "Missile Mail," a concept that involved using a warhead-less Regulus cruise missile to carry -- I'm not making this up -- postal containers.

The U.S. Postal Service devised the Missile Mail test as a combination experiment and publicity stunt in the hopes of finding alternative uses for military technology and more expeditious methods of delivering the mail. At the time, U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield hailed Missile Mail as "the first known official use of missiles by any post office department of any nation� [and an event] of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world."

Summerfield went on to predict that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India, or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."

Clairvoyant, Summerfield was not. Considering the absurdity of using cruise missiles for civilian purposes during the Cold War, to say nothing of the inherent danger of firing weapons over civilian locations at regular intervals, or the high probability that the four-cent (domestic) and eight-cent (international) stamps on the rocket-powered postage didn't exactly cover the cost of using high-priced ordnance to pick up the delivery pace, it should come as no surprise that Missile Mail was a one-time-only affair.

This ballistic boondoggle, however, proved useful to more than just your friendly neighborhood Trivia Geek. Practitioners of philately, otherwise known as stamp collectors, also derived a fair degree of enjoyment from the Missile Mail stunt, as it created a cache of cancelled stamps (from a makeshift post office aboard the Barbero itself) borne by a missile -- an event that, despite Summerfield's predictions, never reoccurred. In other words, Missile Mail may have been a fiasco, but it did manage to create some niche collectors' items.

Still, Summerfield wasn't all wrong; the world was on the verge of "rocket mail" -- just not the type he envisioned. Ten years later, when men did walk on the moon (and Missile Mail was long forgotten), the crew of Apollo 11 secretly made a whole new family of philatelic collectibles possible.

WHAT STAMP-COLLECTING ITEM DID THE CREW OF APOLLO 11 SECRETLY PRODUCE?

What celebrated icon of stamp collection did Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin secretly create during the Apollo 11 moon mission?

As part of a closely guarded publicity stunt withheld from the general public, Aldrin and Armstrong carried with them the master die for a specially made commemorative airmail stamp, which they used to print a die proof while on their lunar mission. In layman's terms, Aldrin and Armstrong stamped the first letter postmarked from the moon.

Of course, anything designed for publicity purposes isn't really a secret -- U.S. Postmaster General Winton M. Blount announced the moon mail plans a week before Apollo 11 launched -- but prior to its formal announcement, the project was never even committed to paper. U.S. Postal Service employees served as verbal messengers, never detailing the moon mail plans in print, let alone entrusting those documents to third-party couriers or even the post office's own letter carriers. Even President Richard Nixon played along.

Despite all the preparation, Armstrong and Aldrin weren't able to carry out their postal mission to the letter. Scientific research came first on Apollo 11, so neither astronaut had time to cast the die proof while the lunar module was on the moon.

Instead, they cast the die proof during Apollo 11's return trip. So, while neither rain nor sleet nor snow can impede the U.S. Postal Service, apparently lunar expeditionary duties can keep part-time postmen from their appointed -- albeit extraterrestrial -- rounds.

Thus, the "MOON LANDING/USA/JUL/20/1969" postmark on the moon letter is technically inaccurate. It didn't actually occur during the moon landing, and it occurred on July 22, 1969.

The space-traveling master die itself never actually cast any official stamps. However, copies based on that master die churned out more than 150 million 10-cent airmail stamps depicting "the first man on the moon" descending the ladder of the lunar module.

And despite meticulous efforts to ensure an accurate representation of both the lander and the spacesuit worn by Neil Armstrong, the image could not cite Armstrong by name. That's because federal law prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from immortalizing living persons on U.S. stamps.

As to the moon letter, the master die, and the special lightweight hand stamp used to create the lunar postmark, all three became centerpieces of a traveling exhibition during the Apollo heyday. Since, however, each of these items has disappeared ostensibly into the U.S. Postal Service archives, representing perhaps the holy grail of philatelic collectibles -- and intriguing bits of Geek Trivia.

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The Quibble of the Week

If you uncover a questionable fact or debatable aspect of this week's Geek Trivia, just post it in the discussion area of the article. Every week, yours truly will choose the best post from the assembled masses and discuss it in the next edition of Geek Trivia. (To read the original quibble from this article, see Listing A.)

This week's quibble comes from the May 16 edition of Geek Trivia, "The (space)pen is mightier." TechRepublic member terrus disputed my timeline of cabin atmosphere compositions in manned NASA spacecraft.

"The 100 percent oxygen environment was continued into the Apollo program. The 100 percent oxygen environment was listed as a hazard after the fire that took the lives of the Apollo 1 astronauts."

Too true, dear reader -- however, you'll note that I wrote "the 100-percent oxygen environment present in all pre-Apollo manned NASA spacecraft." That is, I said all pre-Apollo craft had 100 percent oxygen atmospheres -- not that Apollo craft didn't. Mostly, I just didn't have space to mention the Apollo 1 disaster.

Certainly, no Apollo-era manned NASA spaceflights had pure oxygen cabin air, as the Apollo 1 fire happened during a launch test. All subsequent flights had mixed-oxygen-nitrogen air environments. After the Gemini program, no American went into space breathing pure cabin O2. But it was a nice quibble, so keep them coming!

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The Trivia Geek, also known as Jay Garmon, is a former advertising copywriter and Web developer who's duped TechRepublic into underwriting his affinity for movies, sci-fi, comic books, technology, and all things geekish or subcultural.

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