NASA postal cover pair '62 '98 vtg FDC Mercury 6 STS-95 John Glenn Space Pioneer

Description

Very cool pair of vintage space event postal covers related to John Glenn.
Example on top is particularly cool since it was canceled twice:
Feb 20, 1962: Historic launch into space as the first American to orbit the Earth
Oct. 29, 1998: His return to space on the the Space Shuttle Discovery's mission STS-95
The stamp block in the upper right corner was postmarked in 1962, but did not originally have a cachet / image on the left. The image shown here was printed in 1998 and then run through the postal meter again on the launch date of STS-95. What a unique way to commemorate both of John Glenn's flights!
The lower cover is a more standard first day cover issue with a single stamp, and NASA-produced sticker added as a cachet at a later time.
For the 1962 Mercury launch, unlike many other space events, the postal service created stamps for this event in advance of it happening, so people were able to get postmarks / cancels of the event date on the commemorative stamp.
Envelopes show yellowing where the glue browned the paper with age (visible on the back as well), the covers were stored for nearly 40 years in a stack of other covers from this launch so there is some tanning on the back from the paper where the stamps from the envelope behind it touched it. Cover has a light wave from how it was stored, but it should flatten under the weight of some books for a short time or if matted and framed, which would make a great display.
We have several examples of these covers, all with the same placement of the stamps and condition, but the block numbers of the stamps may be different.
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