First Official Missile Mail Cover Question

Hi
Is the way to tell whether it was flown or not determined by having a front and a rear date/time stamp and a to: Famous Person/Address address?

USS Barbero 9:30AM / Jacksonville FL 10:30AM

Thanks for info!

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Cover has the important person, two correct cancellations, correct stamp and dates and rocket. Nice cover. Is the letter included?

There wasn't anything inside when I received it.

...maybe it was classified, ....?

Or, actually, maybe the letter that was inside is at the Museum in TN, ...?

All 3,000 flown covers had a standardized letter enclosed signed by the Postmaster General. The letter is valuable.

E Carroll Reece has quite a historical story and most interesting life. A desired recipient of note.

Thanks for the information. I'll look for the letter but I don't think it was in the collection...

Back in the day when these were created they were flown on a Regulus I missile launched from the USS Barbero submarine at the naval base in Norfolk Virginia to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida, near Jacksonville, Florida. They were addressed and sent to 3,000 political bigwigs and muckety-mucks with an enclosed printed letter signed by then Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield. In recent decades many of the people to whom these were sent have passed away and their covers have been coming on to the market and so they are not as rare or valuable as they once were and there are many fewer airmail collectors as there were in the past who would buy one of these I think they are interesting but since this was a one-time occurrence and the hopeful vision of one day having US mail actually being delivered by rocket flights never panned out a collection of such covers would be pretty much complete with just this one cover. On the other hand it might be a nice ancillary item in a more general space flight collection.

fyi, a Missile Mail cover (complete with letter) is currently being offered for sale by Cherrystone from the John Hotchner collection (Boston 2026 sale).

Thanks!