WASHINGTON -- Space is one of the most sought after subjects in one of the world's most popular hobbies -- stamp collecting.
"It's probably one of the top three interests of topical collectors along with sports and ships," said Frank Sente, director of administration at the American Philatelic Society in State College, Pennsylvania, which has 55,000 members.
"There's an abiding love of the space program, but I suspect that in recent years it has waned somewhat from what it was in the 1960s and 1970s," he said.
Space enthusiasts will have more to collect this summer, when the U.S. Postal Service rolls out its Achievements in Space Exploration with five new stamps at the World Stamp Expo 2000 in Anaheim, California, from July 7 to 16.
Among them will be the first holographic, circular stamp in U.S. history ($11.75), an issue that marks space achievements. Another, which celebrates exploration of the solar system ($1), will be the first five-sided stamp ever put out by the Postal Service.
Others highlight the landing on the moon ($11.75), escaping Earth's gravity ($3.20) and probing the vastness of space (60 cents).
"If you want to put on a world-class show you certainly want to issue stamps that are as popular as you can get," said David Failor, a Postal Service spokesman.
Over the years, the Postal Service has issued more than 60 stamps about space.
One of the first to take the world by storm was the Project Mercury issue.
It came out on February 20, 1962; the day John Glenn became the first American in orbit. Glenn circled Earth three times aboard Friendship 7 on a mission that lasted nearly five hours.
"When the post office issued that stamp, they did it unannounced and it came out on the day Glenn landed so it sparked a lot of interest," Sente said.
Since then, space has been featured five times in the Postal Service's "Celebrate the Century" series, which picked 10 topics to represent each decade of the century. Space made the cut in the 1960s (moonwalk and Star Trek); the 1970s (the Pioneer probes); the 1980s (the space shuttle and E.T. the Extra-terrestrial); the 1990s (return to space) and in early 2000 (Space Shuttle Columbia).
The Postal Service estimates there are about 22 million stamp collectors worldwide, making philately one of the biggest hobbies in the world. In the United States alone, there are an estimated 5 million collectors, according to the trade publication Linn's Stamp News.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was an avid stamp collector and even helped design a few in his time. Others bitten by the bug include actors Ernest Borgnine and Gary Burghoff, along with former space shuttle commander Henry Hartsfield.
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