Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

For a number of years, post offices in Houston, Texas, have offered different pictorial postmarks with space themes.

Many of these postmarks are in an interchangeable date format, largely because collectors want to obtain covers with a certain date. Launches, dockings and other space events don’t always happen on schedule, making the date for a postmark hard to lock down.

It is nice that the United States Postal Service has been flexible with collectors of space-related postmarks. The Postal Service recently also made obtaining these postmarks more convenient for collectors, by having one post office handle all requests.

The announcement about this change appeared in the Dec. 18 Postal Bulletin in an update on four Houston space pictorial postmarks: “All Houston, TX Post Offices receive hundreds of requests each month for the four postmarks popularly known as the ‘Space’ postmarks. These Post Offices are now consolidating the canceling process to one Post Office so they can better serve their customers.”

The new mailing address for these postmark requests is Space Postmark Request, c/o Postmaster, Sam Houston Station, Attn: Mr. Kenneth Cooper, 1500 Hadley St., Houston, TX 77002-9998.

The four postmarks that are available are pictured here: three different International Space Station mission control postmarks, one with the text “Crew Dragon in Earth Orbit,” and a single postmark for astronaut extravehicular activity. (The dates appear below these designs on the actual postmark.)

Be sure to note in your request the postmark that you would like on your cover.

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