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Morris W. Beck Naval Covers
 

Copyright ©1999-2024 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.      Revised: 03/01/2024

 

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 MA-9 Gordon Cooper May 16 1963 USS KearsargeProject 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.

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Copyright ©1999-2024 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.      Revised: 03/01/2024