516 pp. - more than 1000 colour ill. - hardbound - 1st ed. 2016
VALUATIONS IN EURO
with number of the known examples
German text with introduction and glossary in English, Russian, Chinese and Italian

ALSO AS FREE BOOK (class C)

PIONEER-ROCKET MAIL AND SPACE MAIL
Handbook and Specialized catalogue

The catalogue describes in detail the launches of single rockets, with the support of technical, historical, biographic and philatelic information, and gives documented prices for the analysed items.

The chapter regarding rocket mail pioneers replaces the previous editions of 1967 and 1973 by Ellington Zwisler. Compared to them, the present edition is widened e and many results of the researches are published here for the first time.

The astronauts brought documents together with their private luggage on the occasion of all the flights to the Moon, from Apollo 11 to Apollo 16. Special handstamps of the USA mail have landed on the Moon: respectively 1 with Apollo 11 and 2 with Apollo 15. All the onboard letters of the Soviet and Russian cosmonauts are catalogued for the first time, from Sojuz 4 of January 1969 to Sojuz TMA-18M of March 2016. Many space letters have flown onboard Space Shuttles or unmanned Dragon spaceships. Chinese too have transported documents in the Space, making manned and unmanned flights. In November 1960, 28 covers onboard the spy satellite Discoverer 17 have made 30 rides around the Earth. In October 2014, documents onboard the Chinese probe Chang'e 5-T1 have made a ride around the Earth. The signatures of all the 556 astronauts from Juri Gagarin to Timothy Peake complete the work.

From the introduction by the Author:

Between the two world wars, young researchers in different countries launched rockets carrying letters and cards. Some of them undertook preliminary tests towards space travels.
They wanted to supply distant villages with mail, accelerate mail-delivery over long distances and start space travels.
For the first time on 3 October 1942, an A-4 / V-2 rocket reached a height of 84.5 km, which was considered space back then.
Later on, rocket mail flights not leaving the gravity of the Earth could not significantly contribute to rocketry and space exploration. Therefore, Pioneer-Rocket Mail ends with the end of WWII.
Space mail are letters and covers that were flown into space at an altitude of 100 km (328,084 feet): Space is defined to begin at an altitude of 100 km according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale - FAI.
Onboard covers document an event on board the space station, sometimes an event on the Earth or an anniversary. Most of them are signed by all crewmembers.
During Soviet times numerous souvenir covers with onboard postmarks were made before launch and after the landing. Many bear the signatures of the cosmonauts involved.
Not all the covers transported contain a letter inside.
At the end of 1988 a postal date stamp arrived on board the Russian Mir space station. Since then cosmonauts mark letters transported from the Earth with the date of docking of the spacecraft which transported them to the space station. Letters sent to the Earth are postmarked with the date of undocking from the space station. A board letter carries addresses and details.
Unless otherwise noted, letter means "cover with content". This includes that either the receiver is already on board the space station, or the cosmonaut writing the letter remains in space, when the letter is delivered to the Earth.