Romanian Space Stamps

During the height of the Soviet space program in the 1960s, countries throughout the Communist bloc issued stamps commemorating the achievements of the Soviet Union in space. One of these countries was Romania. Throughout the decades of Communist rule, Romania issued a number of stamps and stamp series that commemorated nearly every aspect of the Soviet space program. Satellites, unmanned rocket launches, manned space flights and the cosmonauts that made history were all commemorated on Romanian stamp issues during the Space Race. That space stamp tradition has continued well into the Romania of today. Also, some of Romania's stamps commemorate the contributions Romania itself gave to space travel and exploration. These stamps not only celebrate the lives and achiements of Romania's space pioneers, but also tell the world a little about their fascinating stories!

During the 1950s and early 1960s, Romania issued numerous stamp issues and commemoratives commemorating the Sputnik and Luna missions. When Yuri Gagarin made his historic flight in 1961 and became the first man in space, commemoratives were issued a mere week later celebrating the milestone.

A series of stamps from 1963 commemorating the Vostok 5 & 6 missions, which took place - and concluded - on June 19th of that year.

In June of 1963, the Soviet Union made space history not once but twice. On the 21st of June, Valery Bykovski returned to Earth in Vostok 5 and Valentina Tereshkova blasted off in Vostok 6. Bykovsky set the endurance record for the time by spending 5 days in orbit around the earth (and returned to Earth on the same day Valentina blasted off into space) while Tereshkova was the first woman in space. These were two historical milestones for the Soviet space program and both were made on the same day! They were both honored by the Romanian postal service not long afterwards in the stamps above.

Two Romanian spcae stamps from 1965-66.

Of course the spacecraft themselves were commemorated in Romanian postage stamps! On the left are stamps from two separate series: The "Satellite" series of 1965 and the "Space" series of 1966. These series honored the various spacecraft and space missions carried out worldwide during those years, including the USSR's Venera ("Venus"), Voskhod, and Luna ("Moon") missions, France's FR-1 launch, and America's Gemini missions.

The stamp on the left commemorates the Soviet Venera-3 mission to Venus, which was the USSR's first attempt to land a probe on the surface of Venus. The mission was ultimately a failure, but it was commemorated on stamps worldwide, including this one.

Also in 1965, NASA's successfully launched the Intelsat-1, or "Early Bird" satellite. This was the first commercial communications satellite and was noteworthy, among other things, for broadcasting the Gemini 6 splashdown and Our World, the very first satellite TV special. The stamp on the right comes from the "Satellites" series of 1966 and commemorates this historic satellite launch.

This series is noteworthy in that it stayed "neutral" in the Space Race and honored the achievements made in space by both East and West.

Two stamps from 1982 commemorating Romania's "founding fathers of space".

In 1982, the Romanian postal service issued two stamps commemorating its own "founding fathers" of space travel: Henri Coandă and Hermann Oberth. Both of these men are national heroes and without them, space flights may never have become a possibility.

Coandă was a pioneer of aerodynamics and an inventor who, among other things,  is said by some to have invented the world's first jet in 1910. Coandă's achievements have been a source of pride for the Romanian people over the years. So much so that a commemorative stamps has been issued in Romania honoring his achievements as recently as 2010!

Hermann Oberth was one of the pioneers of rocket propulsion in the 20th century. He came to Germany as a young man in the 1910s and a decade later, became involved with the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (or "The Spaceflight Society" in English), which also included fellow space pioneers Wernher Von Braun (who he also mentored) and Capt.Walter Dornberger among its ranks. However, Oberth remained in Romania throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, he relocated to Germany and worked in Hitler's rocket program during World War II. In the 1960s, he came to the US and worked for Von Braun at NASA and helped develop the Saturn-V rocket. Oberth made many other achievements in space travel during his lifetime and all of these achievements led to him being honored on postage stamps back home in Romania.

A Romanian airmail stamp from 1963 dedicated to Laika. This stamp features artwork used on an earlier stamp from 1959 .

There is one Soviet space pioneer whose flight into space was initially celebrated across the Communist bloc and has since been commemorated all around the world. That pioneer is Laika, the first dog into space and the first creature to orbit the earth.

In 1957, the Soviet space authorities wanted to test the effects of space flight on a living creature. For these tests they selected Laika, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow, to be placed on board Sputnik-2 and put into orbit around the earth until it re-entered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated. Sadly enough, Laika would ultimately die during this mission and it wasn't known until 2002 that she died six hours into the mission from overheating and stress.

Over the years, postage stamps have been issued around the world commemorating her flight and her ultimate sacrifice. Romania has issued a number over the years, including the one above.

During the 1970s-80s, many more space stamps were issued in Romania. These included stamps commemorating the flight of Romania's first cosmonaut. When Dumitru Prunariu blasted off into space aboard Soyuz-40 in 1981, it was cause for celebration across the country...as well as a cause for issuing a special commemorative!

There have been other space stamps issued by the Romanian postal service since the glory days of the Space Race. These have honored the achievements made by the men and women from all around the globe who have given their all - and sometimes their lives - to explore the realms of space. They include those men and women from Romania itself who have made their own entries into the annals of space and flight history, but have remained largely unknown in the West.

Sources:
-http://www.spaceandastronomystamps.com/rou.xhtml (A listing of all Romanian space stamps issued from 1957 to 2011.)