Apollo 1 Fire Cover Very Scarce

This cover was designed and produced (roughly 40 covers)by KSC but never officially released. Several examples produced by local communities outside of Kennedy Space Center not bearing this Official Cahet where also issued , many back dated. Lots of speculation on that subject. Enjoy

Don't know about back-dated ... howzabout back-cacheted ???

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I agree with Ikey, cachets can easily be added later, and this cover it is very unlikely to be backdated.

Consider paragraph 42.10(b) from the 1948 edition of the "Postal Laws and Regulations", (the last compiled volume in a convenient book format), which can get you fired for willful misdating of mail matter:



I am sure a similar dating regulation was still in effect in 1967. There is no doubt in my mind that the date in the machine cancel is the day is was canceled

I was not referring to this cover as being back dated . This is a genuine cover. This was obtain from Nasa Mail and Reports Management Section headed by F.J.Rhodes, also a member of the KSC Philatelic society as was my Farther. I am referring to the Cape Canaveral Canceled varieties and other local issues surrounding the Space Center area. Many articles have been written on this subject.

If other postal facilities backdated covers, then the clerks risked their jobs. It could have happened. Each place would nave its own story.

My apologies to you, collector F.J.Rhodes, and your dad.

In fairness to me, I was led astray by the terse concluding sentence with its broad pronoun "that".

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I've never heard of Kennedy Space Center producing "official" philatelic souvenirs. They were usually created by the Titusville Moonport Stamp Club, and deposited with the KSC mail office for cancellation.

Robert

I didn't know KSC had a philatelic society back then. No such thing now unfortunately.

Robert

It was called Cape Canaveral until 11/29/63 when LBJ renamed it to KSC.

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If memory serves, the KSC name now refers to only the actual space facility, and the balance of the land has reverted from Cape Kennedy to Cape Canaveral.

If only the same could be said of the New Tappan Zee Bridge <sigh> ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Glad to see such interest in such a subject after 52 years. Just wanted to spark discussion on key philatelic material from a period in the space program which was very exciting. I will continue to post ( after collaboration with fellow second gen collectors) to post examples of what I consider the top 10 KSC officials.
more to come.

Ham and Egger

In reply to the difference between Cape Canaveral AFB and Kennedy Space Center. The Cape Canaveral area is divided into two facilities which border one another along the east central Florida coast line. Canaveral AFB to the south was the epicenter for all early manned NASA missions. Apollo 7 was the first and last Apollo mission to launch from there also sadly the Apollo 1 event took place there also. Several books on the areas history cover this in detail.To the north and west a large area of land was being trans formed in to the Kennedy Space Center in order to support the Apollo Launch vehicle and missions plus every NASA manned program to date. For a short period of time Cape Canaveral it self was renamed Cape Kennedy but latter change back to Canaveral once the Kennedy Space Center came on line. The Kennedy Space Center is a small city within its self, having it own system of roads ,bridges,rail and support facilities for its workers. These include fire rescue stations, medical,food service,gas stations,gift shops,its own internal mailing system and of course a Postal facility located within the Head Quarters Building.Now the KSC Philatelic Society was a group of individuals who worked at the space center or the neighboring CC AFB which was comprised of Nasa employees and sub contractors alike who held there meeting within the facility. If you had no badge to get in then you where not a member. Several groups out side the gate such as the Moon Port Club where formed to fill the vacuum so to speak for these individuals.Now to the KSC Officials or Cachets if you like. This series of covers where completely controlled by NASA's Mail and Reports Management Section. A Support directorate with in the post office at KSC was formed to specifically handle these items as far as design input, printing and distribution with in tight guideline and channels established by the Washington based NASA group ( there boss so to speak). Hope this helps.

Agree that the date on this cover is most likely the date it was processed, but I might point out that there does not seem to be much compliance with this particular postal regulation by the Post Office when it comes to their processing First Day Covers. I also agree that "back dating" privately made cachets on event covers (and First Day Covers) seems to be entirely up to the guy who is making it and there are no regulations of any kind on that kind of philatelic shenanigans.