08 April 2019
|
The fiftieth anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landings have inspired a growing range of new stamps from philatelic bureaux around the world.
The Apollo 11 moon landings took place in July 1969, when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on the Moon. The incredible feat was watched by millions around the world and soon celebrated on stamps, incuding the memorable 10c Air Mail value from the USA which showing that ‘one small step’ made by Armstrong.
Five decades later, stamps are again celebrating the achievement. The USA have revealed two stamp designs commemorating that historic milestone. One stamp features a photograph of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in his spacesuit on the surface of the moon. Remarkably, the image was taken by astronaut Neil Armstrong. The other stamp, a photograph of the moon taken in 2010 shows the landing site of the lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility, indicated on the stamp by a dot.
Meanwhile, smaller nations are honouring the milestone, including the Isle of Man, as reported in Stamp Collector, and later this year Jersey and Guernsey. The Faroe Islands have also given a nod to the defining moment with a stamp, issued on 29 April, which recreates artist Edward Fuglos’s childhood memory of being shown the Moon by his father. According to the bureau’s description, ‘his father, Jens, took the little one in his arms, walked over to a window and pointed up to the sky telling him about the men who at that very moment had landed on the Moon’.
Other countries set to mark the anniversary include Germany and Sweden, who highlight the use of the Hasselblad camera on two of their three stamps, since the Swedish cameras were used for all the moon landings between 1969 and 1972, capturing images of the moon, and also the earth, ‘as we had never seen them before’.
QUICK LINK: Guernsey's Europa 2019 stamps