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Stamp Club History

Earth Satellites

The Earth satellite projects for JPL are different than the Planetary projects, since they are generally steady, full time continuous operations, without the periodic high-intensity activity surrounded by months of cruise activity in the planetary flights. Consequently, most of the events commemorated are the launches. For these events, the club members spend many hours stamping and stuffing envelopes, and then we wait until the launch has occurred. Launch is often delayed, since Earth orbit missions do not suffer the hard constraints of the planetary missions launch window.

SEASAT

Nearly 20 years after the last JPL Explorer satellite (Explorer 4), JPL again designed and launched an Earth satellite. The spacecraft was built and the instruments integrated by the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. The instruments consisted primarily of different types of experimental radars, and the mission was the first ever to try to measure ocean characteristics such as temperature, sea height, roughness, wave height, and wind speed from space. The Synthetic Imaging Radar (SAR) was the forerunner of the radar used to map Venus on Magellan, and the Shuttle Imaging Radar.

On June 26, 1978, SEASAT was launched into a circular near-polar orbit from the Western Space and Missile Range at Vandenberg AFB. The stamp club produced a Seasat launch cover from Pasadena, using the project seahorse logo adapted to the dimensions of the envelope, in shades of blue, by Don Burcham. About 200 of the 1500 covers produced were cancelled at Vandenberg or at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland, which was the site of operations for the satellite. The near-Earth satellite was tracked by the GSFC-operated Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network. JPL was the site of the mission planning and command center, and also the location of the science data processing and distribution.

Solar Mesospheric Explorer

In 1981, JPL again was in charge of an Explorer mission. Built by Ball Brothers with the payload from the University of Colorado (CU) in Boulder, the SME was also operated by the students from the Laboratory for Aerospace Physics (LASP) of CU. The SME was managed from JPL, and launched from Vandenberg. The returns from this simple satellite provided very significant data on the atmosphere, and were an early indicator of such trends as aerosols, which destroy the ozone, and global warming, etc.

The club chose to follow tradition and cancel the SME Launch covers in Pasadena, rather than Boulder. Also, about 100 covers were cancelled at Vandenberg for the launch.

Infrared Astronomy Satellite

IRAS was a joint mission between NASA, and the British and Dutch space organizations. The spacecraft was built by the Dutch, and again launched by the US from Vandenberg. The telescope was built by Ball Brothers, originally for NASA Ames Research Center. The project was managed by JPL, who also eventually managed the telescope development. The mission was operated from England, and the data processing center was managed by Caltech/JPL.

Again, JPL Stamp Club IRAS Launch covers were produced in Pasadena, and 100 were cancelled at Vandenberg. The cachet design, as with the previous launch covers, incorporated the project logo.

TOPEX/ Poseidon

The TOPEX/ Poseidon project was launched by a French Ariane rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on August 10, 1992. This joint project with the French Space agency, CNES, was managed for NASA by JPL. JPL also managed the spacecraft design contract with Fairchild Space Company. Fairchild also integrated the instruments, which were supplied by NASA and CNES. The mission operations and data processing are done at JPL.

The primary objective of this satellite was to measure very accurately the mean sea surface height, and as such is following on at much greater precision the work of the SEASAT altimetry mission.

The stamp club produced 1500 launch covers for this mission. 500 were cancelled in each of the mission operations/ data processing sites; Pasadena for the NASA instruments and mission operations, Toulouse, France for the CNES instruments, and the Kourou for the launch. The cachets are direct four-color reproductions of the project logo. The French cancellations are provided by the CNES philatelic association, in exchange for our processing some of their covers in Pasadena.

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