On February 28th we had the pleasure of presenting to the Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli the folder containing one of the covers which ATV-2 carried last year to the ISS. Paolo Nespoli had personally recovered from the ATV the covers which were then signed by him and the by the other 5 members of the Expedition 26-27: Dmitry Kondratyev, Cady Coleman, Andrey Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev and Ron Garan.

Besides the ISS octagonal board “seal”, Nespoli also put on the cover his personal MagISStra hand stamp, which after the mission has been made unserviceable.

“The AS.IT.AF. flown and signed cover is presented in an elegant folder designed by our member the artist  Alec Bartos and is reserved for the AS.IT.AF. members only. ” http://www.asitaf.it

The 1962 4-cent “Project Mercury” stamp marked the first time that the U.S. issued a previously unannounced commemorative stamp at the same time as the event it was issued to honor. (cS)

The above cover was cancelled on the first day of issue fifty years ago. The cachet designs is made by me (Alec Bartos) in 2008 in an tirage of only two coves. As a custom commissioned cachets for Mr. Ben Ramkissoon. I have remade the cachet handmade. See below:

above: detail of Ramkissoon’s cover

42 years ago, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step foot on another heavenly body.

Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on which the surface television camera was stowed, and the camera recorded humankind’s first step on the Moon at 109:24:19 GET.

The astronauts carried out a planned sequence of activities that included deployment of a Solar Wind Composition experiment, a Laser-Ranging Retroreflector and a Passive Seismic Experiment Package; also collecting samples of lunar material and photographing terrain. While Armstrong and Aldrin completed their tasks on the lunar surface, command module pilot Michael Collins kept vigil in the Columbia module orbiting above.

The three reunited and landed safely in the Pacific Ocean four days later.

For more info: www.nasa.gov/apollo

Cover flown to the moon with Apollo 11.

DL stationery envelopes designed by me for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11

My private FDC (self adhesive printed cachet) for Apollo 11 designed stamps (2009) see http://alecbartos.com/?p=123

Me in kindergarten.

Cosmonauts and astronauts autographs of Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, Leonid Popov, Valery Tokarev, Franz Viehböck, Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov, Russell Louis “Rusty” Schweickart, Bertalan Farkas, Ronnie Walter Cunningham and his wife Dot Cunningham

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With the occasion of the second IAA 2011 Planetary Defense Conference – From threat to action, which will be held in Bucharest, from 9 to 12 May 2011, Romfilatelia was invited to join the event, by introducing into circulation the postage stamps issue with a special thematic, entitled Cosmos 2011. Designer: Alec Bartos

The postage stamps issue emphasizes 3 very important anniversaries at international level, celebrated this year:
─ 50th anniversary of the first man’s flight in Cosmos – Yuri Gagarin;
─ 30th anniversary of the first Romanian’s flight in Cosmos – Dumitru Dorin Prunariu;
─ 50th anniversary of the first session of COPUOS (UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space).

The launching event of the postage stamps issue took place in the presence of Mr. Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, President of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, William Ailor, The Aerospace Corporation, United States of America, Richard Tremayne-Smith, OoS, Great Britain, Rusty Schweickart, astronaut, B612 Foundation, United States of America and Sergio Camacho who unveiled and signed the launching panel of the issue, alongside over 200 guests of the conference.

Thanking Romfilatelia for the elegant and refined design of the postage stamps issue, Mr. Dumitru Dorin Prunariu – the first Romanian who flew in outer space – underlined the importance of the postage stamp which always proved to be a harbinger of great events that marked the world and wrote the history.

http://www.romfilatelia.ro/marci/colectia.php?ContentID=568