Photos: Space Age Postage Stamps Through History

'Earthscapes' Forever Stamp

USPS

Earthscapes "Forever" stamps are being issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

Moon Landing Postal Image Needs Your Stamp of Approval

U.S. Postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service's first priority mail stamp, issued on July 20, 1989, commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 expedition to the moon.

Yuri Gagarin in Stamp Form

Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)

The legacy cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and his historic launch on April 12, 1961, ushering in the era of human spaceflight, continues today. This year, Russia is releasing these commemorative stamps to honor Gagarin's 108-minute orbital flight.

Albanian Stamps Commemorate Sputnik

Blank Archives/Getty

An Albanian postage stamp commemorates the a Soviet Sputnik satellite. ("Shqipëria" is another name for Albania.)

Views of Our Planets stamps

USPS

USPS "Views of Our Planets" stamps depict Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet Postage Stamps

Stephane Sebile via collectSPACE.com

A new set of postage stamps issued by France's La Poste celebrate the recent flight of astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Royal Mail Philae Stamp

Royal Mail/ESA/collectSPACE.com

The United Kingdom's Royal Mail is commemorating the first-ever landing on a comet with a special postmark.

Canada's Canadarm2 Stamp

Canada Post

Canada Post's Canadarm "Canada 150" stamp.

Canada's Canadarm2 Stamp Revealed

Canada Post

Deepak Chopra, president and CEO of Canada Post, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen reveal the new Canadarm "Canada 150" postage stamp to be released June 1.

China's Shenzhou 11 Stamps

China National Philatelic Corporation via collectSPACE.com

New Chinese stamps and collectible envelopes feature Shenzhou 11 crewmates Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, who are now on board China's Tiangong-2 space lab.

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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.