ИСТИНА

The spatial philately was born after the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, the first its stamps is included in a set dedicated to Soviet Union scientists, issued in August 15, 1951, that depicts Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of astronautics and the first image of a cosmic rocket. One of the most interesting stamps that celebrates the early space missions was issued on October 12, 1959, by the Soviet Union for the mission of Luna 3 space probe that had just photographed the far side of the Moon. On a surface of about only 10 cm² there is not only the outline of the trajectory followed by the spacecraft, with relative positions of the Moon and the station during the spaceflight, but also an explanatory text of 48 words and 5 numeric values In the following years, space stamps dedicated to the most important satellites multiplied and in 1969, the year of the conquest of the Moon, at least 88 countries from all continents have already issued space stamps. Of about two thousand stamps. Approximately half of this material was devoted to astronauts and satellites of the USA and the first satellites launched from France, Italy, Canada, and UK. Since the 70s many other countries, such as Japan,, China, India and Indonesia, Israel, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and many others, will issue commemorative stamps of their national satellites.