Challenger remembrance covers

U.S. Stamp Notes by John M. Hotchner

Can it be almost 40 years since the Challenger space shuttle disaster of Jan. 28, 1986, in which the entire crew of seven astronauts was killed when the rocket carrying the orbiter shuttle blew up 74 seconds into its flight?

This launch garnered extra attention because one of the crew members was Christa McAuliffe of Concord, N.H., who was to be the first teacher in space.

There were many in memoriam cancellations created to honor the astronauts, but the Ben Franklin Stamp Club at Waterford-Halfmoon School (elementary grades through high school) in Waterford, N.Y., did the one shown in Figure 1. I have 25 of these available, and I will give one to the first readers to send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope at Box 1125, Falls Church, VA 22041-0125.

Following the space shuttle disaster, there was considerable pressure on the United States Postal Service to issue a stamp in honor of the crew (and other astronauts who had died in the course of related accidents or training). But this was resisted by the Postal Service due to its long-standing practice of not issuing stamps in recognition of such tragic events.

Roughly 10 years later, the USPS did use an illustration of Challenger as the central theme for the 1995 $3 Priority Mail stamp (Scott 2544) shown in Figure 2. It was widely understood to be a memorial stamp, especially because the space shuttle is shown against the black background of outer space.

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