Interesting German Sputnik 1 Photo Card / Post Card

I received this in the mail today. I'm not sure whether this counts as a postcard, as the back is blank. It's almost more of a photo-card of some sort, but not exactly a photograph.

It caught my attention first because of its obvious sputnik theme. My collection is flight topical, and sputnik is such an iconic piece of 20th century flight history. Sputnik 1 was also a huge influence on modern history and the escalated development technology. Its was as a direct result of Sputnik 1 that the US created NASA and DARPA (formerly ARPA), two of the organizations responsible for the most dramatic technology advancements of the 20th century, including the development of the Internet.

But then I noticed the cancel. The Berlin cancel features a picture of the Berlin Archenhold observatory, and celebrates the observatories operations since 1896.

1958, the year of this cancel, was also the last year before they closed the observatory for many years, for upgrading. The observatory is famous for being the location of Albert Einstein's first public lecture on The Theory of Relativity.

I love it... complete with simplified and somewhat cheesy Sputnik 1 model.

Btw... does anyone know if its a FDC? I know the stamp was released in Nov 58, but I'm unsure of the date.

Issue date was 7 November 1957.

Thanks!

A privately produced maxi card? If the back is completely blank, it is interesting that no one took credit for it.

PostmasterGS - I think you meant Nov 7th 1958, correct?

No. Issued 7 November 1957.

Maxicards (matching stamp, subject, cancel) do not require official issue; in fact, the flood of official maxicards (and other FDoI souvenirs) is a "me, too" by the postal administrations who so indulge.

True maxicard fans might object that your cancel does not exactly match your stamp & subject, but that very strictness is what restricts them (almost entirely) to collecting the official exploitative maxicards.

I prefer self-starter (individual initiative) maxicards, myself, warts & all, but that's me.




The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was founded 1915.

As they are wont to do, the politicians renamed the agency to show that they were really serious.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Thanks for the confirmation PostmasterGS. Some of the online sources I was checking were saying 1958 and the stamp lists the 1957-58 year, so it seemed logical that it might be 1958. I'm guess people saw the 1958 on the stamp and assumed that must be the right year of release.

Technically, the NACA was dissolved and an Act of legislation created NASA; so it wasn't quite as simple as a renaming of an existing organization. But you're right that all of the NACA resources essentially became NASA resources, and so the exact nature of the transformation is probably not worth debating. The official explanation is that NASA was created in 1958.

Oh, for goodness' sake:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/naca-tr...50-years-ago ... NACA Transferred Intact to NASA 50 Years Ago

From the horse's mouth...





http://history.nasa.gov/naca/overview.html


I think everything I've mentioned about NASA, its formation, and the connection to Sputnik have all been confirmed by the above comments from the NASA site itself. So I'm not sure what you're taking exception to. NASA was created in 1958, by a legislative ACT, in part out of concerns over Sputnik and the Soviet space program. It's also clear that it wasn't simply a 'renaming' of NACA to NASA. NASA was created, then NACA and other organizations (such a JPL) were incorporated into NASA.

What am I saying that isn't correct? Why am I deserving of a "Oh, for goodness' sake" ???