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Anniversaries

At the end of 1977, the planning for the 20th anniversary of the Explorer 1 mission began at JPL, since JPL played a prominent role in developing the 4th stage for the Redstone rocket, and the payload for this first US space shot. The stamp club decided to provide a commemorative cover for the Explorer 1 Launch - 20th Anniversary (54a) event. This led also to the decision to begin a series of commemorative anniversary covers, at least in part to allow us to honor past missions for which we had not been in existence to provide an active mission event cover.

Explorer 1

The Laboratory developed a logo and artwork for buttons for the 20th anniversary that were passed out to all employees, and guests of the celebrations. In designing a cachet for the club's cover, Don Burcham arranged the to use the same artwork, and 3000 covers were produced. The opportunity to make the covers available on January 31, 1978 - the day of the Explorer 1 Launch - 20th Anniversary (54a) - to people at JPL required that the Postal Service provide the cancelled envelopes mid-morning of the anniversary, and they cheerfully cooperated, so that the covers were dispersed to many people on that day. This cooperation would prove to be a characteristic of our work with the Postal Service through the years.

Five years later, we though it important to again honor our first U.S. satellite, with an Explorer 1 25th Anniversary (58a) cover. This was designed by Don Burcham on a blue envelope - one of the few departures from the custom of white paper envelopes for our covers.

Viking Anniversaries

Several Anniversaries were celebrated for the Viking project. The basic artwork relied heavily on the art used for the launch covers - only in single tone this time.

Two years after Viking 1's successful landing on Mars, the blue logo cachet used for the Viking stamp FdoI was cancelled in Pasadena for the 2nd Anniversary (55a). The same cachet was used as mentioned earlier for unofficial first day of issue cancels in Pasadena.

For the Viking 5th Anniversary covers, an ocher colored version of the cachet was used. Viking 1 (57a) and Viking 2 Launch Anniversaries were prepared. Viking 1 Landing 5th Anniversary (57b) covers were produced using rubber stamp cachets.

In 1986, the 10th Anniversary of the Viking 1 Landing on Mars was honored with yet another s version of the logo cachet - this time in green.

NASA 20th Anniversary

To celebrate NASA's 20th Anniversary (56a) (October 1, 1978), the club produced simple one-color cachets designed by Don Burcham, and issued in the quantity of 500.

JPL 20th Anniversary

A few months later (December 31, 1978), JPL celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their joining NASA, and the club produced a companion cover in one color to celebrate the JPL 20th Anniversary of joining NASA (56b) event.

GALCIT Rocket Test - 50th

On October 31, 1986, JPL celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the firing of the experimental rocket by the Caltech graduate students in the Arroyo Seco (the future home of JPL). This scientific event was the beginning of the research into rocket propulsion which was soon organized by Caltech Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratories (GALCIT) as JPL. The Rocket Firing 50th Anniversary (59a) cover reproduces the drawings of that first rocket in an antique-style print with tan paper.

Mariner II Launch - 25th

The Mariner II 25th Anniversary cover was produced in conjunction with the celebrations at the Laboratory which were held August 27, 1987. This cover (produced by Don Burcham) was the first produced by the club using hot gold artwork. The cachet design mirrors the design used for commemorative lapel pins, which were produced for the celebration.

210 Foot Goldstone Antenna 25th Anniversary

The world's Deep Space Missions - most of which are managed and operated by JPL - are tracked and communicated with through the NASA Deep Space Network - a number of antennas around the world, located so that at least one site can communicate with any spacecraft in space. The largest antenna built was the 210 ft (64 meters) antenna (since upgraded to 70 meters), and the first 210 ft antenna was built at Goldstone California. The 210 FT Goldstone Antenna 25th Anniversary (61a) covers were issued April 29, 1991, and cacheted with a rubber stamp cachet.

JATO - 50th

Early in World War II, JPL was an arm of the US Army, closely related to the Redstone Arsenal where after the war Werner Von Braun would develop rockets for the army and for NASA. The Army asked JPL to develop a rocket assist for the take-off of army aircraft. JATO (Jet-Assisted Take-Off) was developed by JPL and flown for the first time August 12, 1941, at March Field in San Bernardino California. The JATO 50th Anniversary cover was cancelled at March Field with a Riverside CA cancellation, since Riverside is now the postal jurisdiction for March Field. The cachet depicts a photograph of this first flight.

Mariner 9/ Surveyor 1 Joint Anniversaries

In 1996, the 25th Anniversary of Mariner 9 launch and Mars Orbit Insertion, and the 30th Anniversary of Surveyor 1 Launch and Moon Landing were celebrated with a single Joint Anniversary cover. This was the last in the series of Anniversary covers produced by the club.

The club produced 15 Anniversary covers. Two of them are described in chapter 11 - Special Events, because they were associated with the JPL 50th Anniversary Open House.

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