Beck Navy Covers Space US Navy

Home

1-50    51-99 MA-8   S,100-150   151-200   201-250   251-299   300-350 MA-9

351-402   403-455    456-514 GT-2    515-569 GT-3, GT-4, GT-5    570-621 GTA-6 GT-7

622-687 AS-201, GTA-8, GTA-9, GTA-10, AP-3, GTA-11        688-769 AS-202, GTA-12, AS-204, AS-501, AS-502, AP-7

770-841 AP-8, AP-9, AP-10, AP-11, AP-12, AP-13, AP-14     842-899 AP-14, AP-15, AP-16, AP-17, SL-II, SL-III, SL-IV

900-951   952-1000 ASTP

Download the FREE checklist

Morris W. Beck Naval Covers

Morris W. Beck-US 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 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flights starting with the MA-7 flight. From 1962 to 1975 Beck produced over 275 different covers for the US 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.

This material is not for commercial use.

Click on any photo to see a larger size photo

Project Mercury

Project Mercury MA-7

Only one such cover has been observed from the Berry and it was sold by a German dealer for $129.76 in December 2019.

Text below has a slight revision 12/2019 based on new information
Project Mercury, Aurora 7, MA-7, May 24,1962. M. Scott Carpenter. Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) was USS Intrepid, but USS John R Pierce picked up the capsule. The covers shown here are VERY hard to find. We have never seen the actual Pierce covers. The USS Pierce single-color scan above is courtesy of Ray Cartier as shown in his book. The USS English cover is courtesy of Eddie Bizub. The Berry cover was sold on eBay in December 2019 for $129.76.

Beck's cachet was printed in three colors and is similar in design to Beck MA-8, B77-79. The cachet border and text are different between the MA-7 and MA-8 covers.

The MA-7 cover is not considered to be part of the 1000 cover series.

The USS English cover is a mystery because we don't know the story about how it came to be. Did Mr. Beck send the cover to the USS English for postmarking? Did someone on the USS Pierce send the cover to the USS English? How many did Mr. Beck make? We just don't know. In 2005, we asked Mr. Beck these questions, but he couldn't remember the specifics. He passed away in 2011.

If you have covers for other ships with the printed Beck MA-7 cachet, please send us a scan for this site.

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.

Project 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

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.

Hit Counter