L4801

Celebrate

Space Shuttle Discovery

Collins Cover Announcement 

CELEBRATE!

The Era of the Space Shuttle

As a cachetmaker, I am pleased to take this opportunity to celebrate the end of an important and historic era of the United States space program. The many missions of the five shuttles — Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor — advanced on so many levels our capabilities to operate in space. The era of the space shuttle is a tribute to the engineers, technicians, support personnel and, of course, the heroic astronauts of NASA. As a citizen, I am dismayed that the current administration has decided not to proceed with Project Constellation which included the Orion spacecraft — the shuttle's planned successor., As of now, the UnitedStates of America will have no capacity to put astronauts into space and will have to rely on Russia to take our astronauts to the International Space Station at a huge cost per flight. It also leaves us incapable of servicing the Hubble telescope and important satellites. Further, most of our manned flight scientific team at NASA will be let go and, some time down the road, reestablishing a program will become a formidable and costly endeavor. In our staggering and political bureaucratic economy which involves almost unimaginable sums, it is incredible to me that the relatively modest cost of continuing our manned flight space capabilities will be abandoned. The overwhelming majority of those in the scientific and military communities agree with this assessment, and virtually 100% of those at NASA think we are being extremely short-sighted. It is logical to conclude that the next nation to put astronauts on the moon and continue lunar development will be China.

My hand painted cachet shows the shuttle Discovery which is now our oldest surviving spacecraft after the loss of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. The new stamp is the neon CELEBRATE! issue, and I can't think of a better cachet subject to celebrate than the amazing era of the space shuttle and the efforts of all the men and women who over the last 30 years have kept Americans in space. When the Atlantis landed on July 22, 2011, the last flight was complete. As the shuttle rolled to a stop on the runway, the NASA spokesman said, "Having secured its place in history, the spacecraft arrives in port for the final time. Its voyage is over. " How sad for America that a successor is not in place. Collins #L4801 at $14.00.