The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon, Brazil

Sometime, at the end of last year, I received this envelope in the mailbox. 

At first glance it looks as if it had gotten chicken-pox or that has been otherwise contaminated. 

 

 The most logical explanation is that it had been struck by some muddy rain, which had affected the front side, the back side, as well as the paper inside the envelope... so basically, everything was wounded here, including my heart since the Apollo stamps were ruined as well and you know how I feel to things astronomy-related. 

I had almost forgotten about it, since i had placed it in a plastic bag and tucked it away in my drawer and found it few days ago while looking for something else.

One of the postmarks had been completely soaked, but the other one has remained perfectly clear, which is quite strange. As you can see, it was sent back in March 2020.. but that was when this whole Covid mess started, mail was being suspended (with a lot of countries it still is), therefore it took so long, 9 months, to arrive... not that mail from Brazil is top-efficient in normal times, but still nine months is something beyond the usual timeframe.

I assume this cover was sent for the SCM group on FB, but for a reason unknown to me, I am unable to see that group any longer - I'd like to believe it is cos of how the whole postal system has gone haywire, and not cos I have been kicked out for some reason  👀 

Im sure we all have some ruined-mail stories. If you'd like, you can share the story in the comments or you can also leave a link to that story on your blog :)

Astronomy, Malta

As I had promised (to myself), I am back to Sunday Stamps as the new A-Z cycle begins. Will start the new season with one of my favourite themes - Astronomy.

The year of 2009 was dedicated to this topic with the EUROPA stamps, where MaltaPost Philatelic Bureau issued its two stamps on 9th May 2009, featured on this FDC.
The Euro 0.37 stamp features a portrait of Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) by Francesco Boschi and one of Galileo’s sketches of the moon set against a starry background including the constellation Orion. The stamp also commemorates the 40 year anniversary of the first manned lunar landing by featuring the Apollo 11 lunar module “Eagle”.
The Euro 1.19 stamp shows the great telescope of William Lassell, set up in Malta between 1861 and 1865, against a background of stars showing Nebula M42, which Lassell himself observed on various occasions from Malta."

So you all new and old Sunday Stampers, check out the rest of the A-words today, and don't forget to contribute with yours :)

Astronomy, Hungary

Well, the weekend getaway plans had failed, so I could do my Sunday duty properly for a change :)
And coming with a double G today, with Mr. Galielo Galilei (though maybe I could sneak in Galaxy here as well...)

On 8th of May 2009, Hungary issued this fantastic mini-sheet for that year's EUROPA theme, Astronomy. I am not into EUROPA stamps, but Astronomy is definitely one of my favourite subjects, so that is one joyous year to think about :D

As for the man himself presented on the stamps here, I don't think any special introduction is needed.

For more G-related posts, check out today's edition of Sunday Stamps. 

Space Stamps, USSR

well, Sunday Stamps is a good opportunity to make a come back here as well after "raising the postcards' blog from the dead" first. And ever since I read the topic for today, the notion of USSR got stuck in my head, dont know why...after seeing the entries today I realized how narrow my thinking was, but simply, the thought of Russia or another former communist country, made me think of USSR and USSR only...and even with particular stamps in mind. In the end I thought I should maybe take a look at my Russian stamps too, but in the end I decided to go with my gut feeling and make myself happy and content...going with something else would have left this feeling of 'something missing' inside me and that's no good now, is it?

well, some of you know how hyped I get with EVERYTHING space related, so that's why I was also so anxious today to show a number of USSR stamps that are space related...plus I have never shown USSR stamps here before, so here is the first and I hope not the last time :)

I'll start with these two stamps issued in 1962...at first glance they may seem the same but actually there is a difference in colour at the right side...one is more on the violet tone, while the other one is something between bluish/greenish. These two depict the first manned flight to space, launched on April 12 1961 - and the stamps were issued one year later, to commemorate the one year anniversary.
Тhis set comes in the perforated version -an imperforated one can be obtained as well.

another set where the two stamps only differ in colour a bit. Issued in 1962 as well, representing Vostok 2, a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day (or 25 hours to be more precise) on August 6, 1961 to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body. Perforated version.

Still in 1962, this time an imperforated version of a set of three stamps. These represent Vostok 3 and Vostok 4. Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights. Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev/Андриян Николаев (featured on the top right stamp) orbited the Earth 64 times over nearly four days in space, August 11–15, 1962. Vostok 4 was launched a day after Vostok 3, and this was the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. Pavel Popovich (Па́вел Попо́вич)was on Vostok 4 (featured on the top left stamp)

Here is the lovely Sputnik, which was the first artificial Earth satellite, launched on October 4, 1957. The stamp commemorates its fifth anniversary.

and two more stamps from 1962, issued to commemorate all the Vostok Spaceflights, and in Russian you can read "Glory to the Conquerors of Space".

now, here is something from 1963..a fantastic se-tenant stamp if you are asking me! There is another single stamp in the set, but unfortunately I do not have that one. This is another issue to commemorate both Vostok flights going in the space together, Vostok 5 and Vostok 6.  A thing worth noting here is that Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman into space, that is cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

two stamps from a set of three issued in 1964 - yeah, i miss the third one and what really bothers me is that I'm missing the stamp Gagarin is featured on...sniff ;-( but one cant have it all...
anyway, this set was issued to commemorate the Cosmonautic day and here you can see the Sputniks on the first stamp and the Space station Mars 1 on the second one.

a great stamp from 1965, representing the first space walk, done by Alexey Leonov (Алексе́й Лео́нов) on March 18, 1965.

and just one more set for today, again from 1965, again three stamps issued to commemorate the Cosmonautic day, and here you have from left to right: a Soviet space achievements monument, then a Sputnik sculpture in Moscow and at the end K. E. Tsiolkovsky's monument (Константи́н Циолко́вский), who was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory.

well, that would be all...I know it got a bit lengthy but since they were all topic-related, I couldnt just pick one.
A big hug goes to my mum who has collected these over the years while she was really into it ❤

and now it's time to check out what others have come up with for this communist-countries day :)

have a lovely Sunday!