New La Poste stamps feature photos from space

New Stamps of the World – By Denise McCarty 

New booklet stamps from France show the world as viewed from the International Space Station.

The 12 stamps reproduce photographs taken by Thomas Pesquet, the French aerospace engineer, pilot and European Space Agency astronaut who spent six months on the International Space Station in 2016 and 2017.

Two of the stamps feature photos of France: Paris at night, taken April 14, 2017; and the Atlantic island of Noirmoutier, taken Feb. 16, 2017.

The United States is represented by a photograph capturing what Pesquet called the “hypnotizing” twists and turns of the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River.

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The other photos on the stamps show snow and ice in Canada, China and Russia; fields in Saudi Arabia and Spain; and scenes of the Persian Gulf, Bissagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, and the mouth of Betsiboka River in Madagascar.

France’s La Poste issued the booklet June 4. All of the stamps are nondenominated, pay the reduced green letter rate (currently €0.80).

Etienne Thery designed the stamps, and Philaposte printed them by gravure.