Beck Navy Covers Space US Navy

Morris W. Beck Naval Covers
Reference Catalog and Checklist for Collectors
Compiled and Managed by Owen R. Murray, A member of the USCS #5676, and ATA Space Unit #4500

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REVISED> MW Beck Space Cachet Designs     #6 USS Dace Overprint   UPDATE> #220 USS Lowry
Beck 929 Hawkins   GTA-8 USS Boxer   Cover Varieties and Oddities Beck's Messages
1943-1970's Events     Nuclear Ships     Foreign    President Series     States Series    First Day Covers

Articles: NEW Apollo PRS Postmarked in Hawaii
NEW ASTP USS New Orleans July 25, 1975 onboard Cover
Beck Printing Log for Numbered Series
Resources Page Updated June 2008 Updated Checklist June 2008

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Copyright ©2003-2008 Owen R Murray. All Rights Reserved. Revised: Tuesday July 22, 2008.

Morris W. Beck-Manned Space Flight Astronaut Recovery Ship Covers

The following photos represent the cachets for each of the US manned space flights. Beck produced covers for each Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flights starting with the Mercury 8 flight of Wally Schirra on October 3, 1962. From 1962 to 1975 Beck produced 277 different covers for the space flights. These space covers are probably the most sought after of Beck's entire series.

The photos below show the different designs used for each mission.

Also shown are the official NASA Mission Patches.

Click on any photo to see a larger size photo

Project Mercury

Project Mercury MA-8

Mercury Sigma7 Mission Patch

Project Mercury, Sigma 7, MA-8, October 3, 1962
Walter Schirra, Jr. Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) was USS Kearsarge. Beck had a few covers for previous events, but not available to collectors. The design shown here for covers number 77-79 was part of the 1000 cover series. Beck produced MA-8 covers only for three secondary ships, not USS Kearsarge, the Prime Recovery Ship. See covers 77-79

USS John Paul Jones

USS Norris

USS Charles S. Sperry

Project Mercury MA-9

Mercury 9 Faith 7 Mission Patch

Project Mercury, Faith 7, MA-9, May 16, 1963.
Gordon Cooper, Jr., Prime Recovery Ship, USS Kearsarge CVS-33. This was the first Beck cover created for the US space program that included the PRS.

Gemini

Gemini-Titan 2

Gemini patch

Gemini-Titan GT2 January 19, 1965
Capsule Test Flight and Recovery by Prime Recovery Ship, USS Lake Champlain CVS-39.

Gemini-Titan 3

Gemini 3 Patch

Gemini-Titan GT3 Mar 23, 1965
Astronauts, John Young and Virgil Grissom recovered by USS Intrepid CVA-11

Gemini-Titan 4

Gemini 4 Patch

Gemini-Titan GT4, June 7, 1965
Astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White II recovered by USS Wasp CVS-18.

Gemini-Titan 5

Gemini 5 Patch

Gemini-Titan GT5, August 29, 1965
Astronauts Charles Conrad and Gordon Cooper recovered by USS Lake Champlain CVS-39.

Gemini-Titan 6

Gemini 6 Patch

Gemini-Titan GT6, December 16, 1965
Astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford recovered by USS Wasp CVS-18.

Gemini-Titan 6

Gemini-Titan 7

Gemini 7 Patch

Gemini-Titan GT-7, December 18, 1965
Astronauts James Lovell and Frank Borman recovered by USS Wasp CVS-18.

Gemini-Titan-Agena 8

Gemini 8 Patch

Gemini-Titan GTA8, March 17, 1966
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott recovered by USS Leonard Mason DD-852.

Gemini-Titan-Agena 9

Gemini 9 Patch

Gemini-Titan GTA9, June 6, 1966
Astronauts Gene Cernan and Tom Stafford recovered by USS Wasp CVS-18.

Gemini-Titan-Agena 10

Gemini10 patch

Gemini-Titan GTA10, July 21, 1966
Astronauts John Young and Michael Collins recovered by USS Guadalcanal LPH-7.

Gemini-Titan-Agena 11

Gemini 11 patch

Gemini-Titan GTA11, September 15, 1966
Astronauts Charles Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon recovered by USS Guam LPH-9.

Gemini-Titan-Agena 12

Gemini 12 Patch

Gemini-Titan GTA12, November 15, 1966
Astronauts James Lovell and Edwin Buzz Aldrin recovered by USS Wasp CVS-18.

Apollo Program

Apollo Saturn Rocket AS201, February 26, 1966
Unmanned. Heat shield test. Recovered by USS Boxer LPH-4.

IMAGE: Apollo 1 crew patch
AS-204 was renamed to Apollo 1 in honor of the 3 astronauts that died in the pad fire during a test. A total of 8 covers were prepared, 4 for the Pacific and 4 for the Atlantic fleets. The Pacific covers (B712-715) were never returned. That is why we show only the Atlantic cachet design above. B716-720 cachets were held and postmarked for the Apollo 4/AS-501 event and some were postmarked on the Apollo 7 event.

Apollo 3 AS-202, August 25, 1966
Unmanned. Recovered by USS Hornet CVS-12.

Apollo 4 AS-501, November 9, 1967
Unmanned. Recovered by USS Bennington CVS-20.

Apollo 6 AS-502, April 4, 1968
Unmanned. Recovered by USS Okinawa LPH-3.

IMAGE: Apollo 7 crew patch

Apollo 7 AS-205, October 22, 1968
Astronauts Walter Schirra, Don Eisele and Walter Cunningham recovered by USS Essex CVS-9

IMAGE: Apollo 8 crew patch

Apollo 8 AS-503, December 27, 1968
Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders recovered by USS Yorktown CVS-10.

IMAGE: Apollo 9 crew patch

Apollo 9 AS-504, March 13, 1969
Astronauts James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Scheickart recovered by USS Guadalcanal LPH-7.

IMAGE: Apollo 10 crew patch

Apollo 10 AS-505, May 26, 1969
Astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan recovered by USS Princeton LPH-5.

IMAGE: Apollo 11 crew patch

Apollo 11 AS-506, July 24, 1969
Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins recovered by USS Hornet CVS-12.

IMAGE: Apollo 12 crew patch

Apollo 12, November 24, 1969
Astronauts Charles Pete Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon recovered by USS Hornet CVS-12.

IMAGE: Apollo 13 crew patch

Apollo 13, April 17, 1970
Astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise recovered by USS New Orleans LPH-11.

IMAGE: Apollo 14 crew patch

Apollo 14, February 9, 1971
Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa recovered by USS New Orleans LPH-11.

IMAGE: Apollo 15 crew patch

Apollo 15, August 7, 1971
Astronauts David Scott, James Irwin and Alfred Worden recovered by USS Okinawa LPH-3

IMAGE: Apollo 16 crew patch

Apollo 16, April 27, 1972
Astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke recovered by USS Ticonderoga CVS-14.

IMAGE: Apollo 17 Crew Patch

Apollo 17, December 19, 1972
Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmidt and Ronald Evans recovered by USS Ticonderoga CVS-14.

Skylab Logo Skylab 2 Patch

Skylab II, June 22, 1973
Astronauts Charles Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joe Kerwin recovered by USS Ticonderoga CVA-14.

Skylab 3 Patch

Skylab III, September 25, 1973
Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma recovered by USS New Orleans LPH-11.

Sky Lab 4 Patch

Skylab IV, February 8, 1974
Astronauts Jerry Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue recovered by USS New Orleans LPH-11.

Apollo Soyuz Patch

Apollo Soyuz Test Project ASTP, July 24, 1975
Astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton recovered by USS New Orleans LPH-11.

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Articles: NEW Apollo PRS Postmarked in Hawaii
NEW ASTP USS New Orleans July 25, 1975 onboard Cover
Beck Printing Log for Numbered Series
Resources Page Updated Feb 2008

Astronaut Autographs Download Checklists Join the USCS Email Mailing List

Please note that the naval covers illustrated on this Web site are for reference only and not for sale.
This is a private Web site for the enjoyment of collectors of navy covers.

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Please send comments, additions, corrections or questions to Owen R. Murray

Also see Owen's Photography Website for a monthly computer desktop calendar.
Owen's original photography is used on a new calendar each month since 2000.