Qatar - First steps into the space program.

In 1966, Qatar Post designed and printed a special set of stamps honouring space exploration. These were no the first nor the last such themed stamps from Qatar. The first being the 1965 set celebrating the 100th Anniversary of theInternational Telecommunication Union with a depiction of the Telstar, Syncon III and Relay 1 and 2 satellites. These were the first generation of communication satellites and each had a unique part in history.

However, the fate of the 1966 stamps was quite different to the others. The 1966 set was aimed at honouring the first man and woman in space. A quite brave and honourable endeavour. Unfortunately for our stamps, these individuals were Russian, and as such, the British authorities prevented the stamps going to sale.

Until here, there is nothing unique in my story, which is quite well documented. However, I would like to contend, that Qatar was not the only regional state to honour the cosmonauts. Cosmonauts being nothing other than the name for an astronaut in Russian. As such, if we look at the Dubai 1964 issue Honouring the Astronauts we can find a few interesting things (the commonly understood names of the rockets are included in the bottom right corner of the image below). However I would like to disagree with them:

• As can be seen on the Qatar 70 NP stamp and in the 1961 USSR stamp, the red rocket on the Dubai (4NP and 2 Riyal) stamp is exactly the same. They all portrait the Russian Vostok Rocket which carried to Soyuz Capsule in which Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

• The Dubai 1 NP and 5 NP stamps are not the Atlas rocket but rather a precursor - Jupiter C - and direct descendant of the German V2 rocket. Jupiter C was one of the Redstone Family of rockets. It was a test bed for re-entry vehicles (no humans on board) and eventually lead to the Mercury-Redstone variation which eventually carried the first 2 American Astronauts to space in 1961.

• The 2NP and 1Riyal stamp most resemble the Sputnik 2 Capsule within which Laika travelled to space. Both the Russian and Americans were unsure of man's ability to survive the initial acceleration, entry into space and in particular the heat of re-entry. As such, prior to the first human flight, they sent a stray dog in the Sputnik 2. There was never the intention to recover her alive.

• The 3NP and 1½ Riyal stamp appear to the second stage of either the Jupiter C or Vostok rocket.

• Finally the Souvenir sheet, had an overprint variant for the Ranger 7. Again, had no humans on board. It was simply a space probe designed to study the moon, transmitting images back to earth, as an early study of possible landing sites.

As such, I contend it was unfortunate that Qatar opted to include the faces of both Russian Cosmonauts which led to the stamps never been issued. For other that the faces, both the Qatar (70NP) and Dubai (4NP and 2 Riyal + souvenir sheet) stamps included the same rocket. Both honouring the first man into space. The Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.

Be aware that there are forgeries of the Qatar stamps in the market.

Click to enlarge