Space Mail

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It was going to be a spectacular coup! NASA and the USPS were planning to offer flown STS-8 Challenger covers in a special folder to space cover collectors for NASA's 25th anniversary. The covers to be flown on Challenger on the STS-8 mission would have a KSC cancel for the first day of issue of the USA $9.35 express mail stamp, noting, "Space Mail, Orbited Via STS-8" and with a fancy star cancel, stating NASA 25th anniversary 1958-1983 canceling the high value $9.35 stamp. Added to the cover would also be a launched aboard Challenger cancel of August 30, 1983 and a returned to Earth Edwards AFB, CA cancel of September 5, 1983.

That was the NASA and USPS plan, but sometimes plans go awry. There was a limit imposed by the USPS to sell only one flown cover per person with sales beginning after the landing of Challenger at Edwards AFB, California, September 5, 1983. However, sales to individuals were not the determining factor for the covers as the quantity of flown covers was 259,377 covers from the Challenger's orbital flight. If a collector wanted one (or several) one could get them. By the middle of November, USPS staff had sold all of the prized flown covers for the flight, a total of 261,899, covers sold at $15.35 per folder with a STS-8 flown and orbited cover included in the special folder.

The flown cover with serial number 0 was sent to the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. Covers with serial numbers 0-1,000 had been carried in the STS-8 crew compartment. The remaining covers of the 261,900 allotment had been flown in the STS cargo section in special containers that could be offloaded easily after the Challenger's flight. Some covers were damaged during handling and further processing after the flight. A subtotal of 2,532 damaged and mishandled covers were reported destroyed and the over produced number of covers that were not on the STS-8 flight were also ordered destroyed. However, please note this, cover serial numbers below 261,900 do not mean a cover was flown, nor does a serial number above 261,900 guarantee a cover was not flown, so "caveat emptor" in your purchase of these covers.