Sunday, March 1, 2015

smiling faces

Look at these smiling, happy faces of 
John Glenn (right) and Walter Schirra (left)


These stamps from Romania were issued in 1963 as part of their Space Navigation series. There are ten altogether, 6 Russians and 4 Americans. All are set at an angle except for four of the Russians for some reason. The designer was a Dimitrie Stiubei (1901-1986), and it is interesting to note that the flag on each of the stamps has a different fluttering image.

As a side note, I have been reading You Are Here, the photo essay book by Chris Hadfield from his journey on the International Space Station. If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it. If you have only seen his photos from his twitter account when he was the commander of the ISS, you are still in for a treat with his delightful and thought-provoking commentary accompanying the photos. I bet, if Schirra and Glenn could re-enter space in the 21st century, their smiles would be even grander!

Faces for SundayStampsII

10 comments:

  1. The 'diamond' design if these stamps is excellent. Always interesting to see who a country might honor on their stamps. I'm guessing the US has commemorated few if any Romanians.

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    1. Space seems to have been a popular theme for many countries who had no involvement in the 'space race'.

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  2. Chris was in Guelph signing copies of his book....I found out about it after the fact. Dang.

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    1. He was signing in Ancaster and I really, really wanted to go, but there was some mudslide on the highway and traffic was horrendous, so I turned around empty handed. I've only now gotten the book!

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  3. Interesting that they honored people from other countries.

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    1. I find it interesting that they use flags from other countries on their stamps!

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  4. These would fit the space theme coming up.

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    1. yes, but then, I have many, many, other space related stamps!

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  5. I like the subtitle of Hadfield's book of around the world in 92 minutes, the space station certainly goes at quite a lick across the sky.

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  6. Imagine if your dream was to go to space (not something I want to do) and you were one of the few who were so honoured. Amazing!

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