PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. (818) 354-5011
Contact: Mary A. Hardin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      September 23, 1991

      The public is invited to attend a special ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1991, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to commemorate the introduction of a set of U.S. postage stamps depicting planetary exploration.

      The hour-long ceremony will feature statements from Anthony M. Frank, U.S. postmaster general, and Jose L. Castellanos, postmaster of Pasadena, and remarks from Dr. Edward C. Stone, Jr., director of JPL. The U.S. Marine Corps marching band will perform.

      In addition to the ceremony, postal workers will be selling the stamps and other items from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium.

      The sets feature 10 stamps, each with a picture of one of the nine planets in our solar system and the Earth's Moon; each is shown with one of the spacecraft that have journeyed to it. Pluto is the only planet not yet explored. The stamps show Mariner 10 at Mercury, Mariner 2 at Venus, the Landsat satellite above the Earth, the Lunar Orbiter at the Moon, the Viking Orbiter at Mars, Pioneer 11 at Jupiter, Voyager 2 at Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and a solitary Pluto waiting to be visited.

      The stamps were designed by artist Ron Miller of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The $5.80 stamp booklet contains two panes of 10, 29-cent stamps.


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9/19/91
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