Friday, January 27, 2023

Space Exploration from Lisdoonvarna, Ireland

From the town of Lisdoonvarna (Lios Dúin Bhearna) in County Claire. The souvenir sheet on this cover was issued in 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and pay tribute to astronauts with Irish heritage.


Top left is Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on the moon. And bottom right is Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins. Top right is Eileen Collins. She was the first woman to pilot a shuttle mission (STS-63, Discovery in 1995) and the first woman to command a space shuttle (STS-93, Columbia in 1999). And bottom left is Cady Coleman who spent 159 days on the ISS in 2010/11. All four of these astronauts have Irish ancestry.

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