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Mars Climate Orbiter
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Mars Climate Orbiter
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This page contains philatelic information on the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) satellite. Catalog numbers, years of issue, and notes on the satellites featured are given when available. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.
| Launch information (found elsewhere) |
Launch covers (including anniversary-of-launch covers, and launch-related event covers) (farther below) |
Other postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.) (immediately below) |
|---|---|---|
| Mars Surveyor 1998 Orbiter2 | [canceled] | Mars Surveyor 1998 Orbiter2 (MCO forerunner) |
| MCO | MCO | MCO |
Below is a list of Mars Climate Orbiter satellite postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.).
| Country | Catalog Number | Type of Item | Year of Issue | Notes on Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mars Surveyor 1998 Orbiter2 (MCO Forerunner) | ||||
| Palau | 412 (BL47) | SS1 | 1996 | The "Surveyor spacecraft" (full name Mars Surveyor 1998 Orbiter, which became the MCO) was part of the Mars Surveyor 1998 program2, along with the Mars Surveyor 1998 Lander, which became the MPL |
| Palau | 412 fdc | SS1 on FDC | ||
| Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) | ||||
| Comoro Islands | 1009d (Mi1949) | One of MS6 (1009 (a-f)) (Mi1946-1951) | 2008 | "Mars Climate" Orbiter |
| Djibouti | Mi8678 | One of MS4 (Mi8675-8678) | 2024 | "Mars Climate Orbiter" |
| Ivory Coast | Unknown a (Mi none) | One of MS4 (a-d) [known illegal issue] | 2012 | "Mars Climate Orbiter" |
| Liberia | Unknown b (Mi?) | One of MS4 (a-d) | 2023 | Mars Surveyor 1998 program mission patch1 (includes depictions of MCO and MPL) |
| Liberia | Unknown ss (BL?) | In (lower-left) margin of SS1 | ||
| Maldive Islands | Mi8593 | One of MS4 (Mi8590-8593) | 2019 | Mars Surveyor 1998 program mission patch2 (includes depictions of MCO and MPL) |
| Nevis | 1215 (BL187) | SS1 | 2000 | "Mars Climate Orbiter" |
| Niger | 1076c (Mi1910A) i1076c (Mi1910B) | One of MS9 (1076 (a-i)) (Mi1908A-1916A) One of imperforate MS9 (i1076 (a-i)) | 2001 | "Mars Climate Orbiter" |
| Palau | 501b (Mi1457) | One stamp and in (upper-right) margin of MS6 (501 (a-f)) (Mi1456-1461) | 1999 | "Mars Climate Orbiter" (but Mars Odyssey depicted)1 (stamp 'b'); Mars Surveyor 1998 program mission patch2 (includes depictions of MCO and MPL) (in upper-right margin) |
| Palau | 503 (BL84) | SS1 | "Mars Climate Orbiter" | |
| St. Kitts | 870c (Mi1370) | From MS4 (870 (a-d)) (Mi1368-1371) | 2014 | "Mars [Climate] Orbiter" (but Mars Odyssey depicted)1 |
| St. Kitts | 870d (Mi1371) | "Mars Climate" Orbiter | ||
| Sierra Leone | 5367a (Mi11169) | One of MS4 (5367 (a-d)) (Mi11169-11172) | 2019 | Mars Surveyor 1998 program mission patch2 (includes depictions of MCO and MPL) |
| Sierra Leone | Unknown a (Mi18550) | One of MS5 (a-e + label) (Ni18550-18554) | 2024 | Mars Surveyor 1998 program mission patch2 (includes depictions of MCO and MPL) |
| Togo | 2035e (Mi3320) i2035e | One of MS6 (2035 (a-f)) (Mi3316-3321) One of imperforate MS6 (i2035 (a-f)) | 2006 | MCO (but "Odyssey" in text)1 |
| Togo | Unknown ss (BL?) | In (upper-right) margin of SS1 | 2023 | Mars Surveyor 1998 program mission patch2 (includes depictions of MCO and MPL) |
| United States | 3242 fdc (Mi? fdc) | (Mystic Stamp Company) back of FDC, also front | 1998 | MCO (launched Dec 1998) and MPL (launched Jan 1999) studied "weather changes on Mars, especially in the south polar region" |
1Mars Climate Orbiter appears quite similar to Mars Odyssey but without an instrumented boom attached to the spacecraft body.
2Mars Surveyor 1998 program: see https://nasa.fandom.com/wiki/Mars_Surveyor_%2798_program.
Below is a list of Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) satellite launch covers (including anniversary-of-launch covers, and launch-related event covers).
| Country | Cancel Date | Cancel Location | Type of Item | Notes on Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998-12-11: Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) | ||||
| United States | 1998-12-10 | Titusville FL, Astronaut Trail Station | (DTR) cachet on cover | MCO launch |
| United States | 1998-12-11 | Kennedy Space Center FL | (DTR) cachet on cover | MCO launch |
| United States | 1998-12-11 | Kennedy Space Center FL | (FM?) cachet on cover | MCO launch |
| United States | 1998-12-11 | Pasadena CA | (Mission Operations Station) cancel and (JPL Stamp Club) cachet on cover | MCO launch (the "Mars Surveyor 98" program included both the "Mars 98 Climate Observer" (an early name for the MCO) and the MPL; the cachet, which reproduces the mission patch of that program, depicts both); Mars Odyssey (not "Mars Climate Orbiter") in the cancel) |
| MCO (post-launch events) | ||||
| United States | 1999-09-23 | Pasadena CA | (JPL Stamp Club) cachet on cover | attempted Mars orbit insertion and loss1 ("Mars [98] Climate Observer" in text) |
| United States | 1999-09-23 | Pasadena CA | (Black and purple rubber-stamp) cachet on cover | "Spaceraft [sic] lost during MOI" (Mars Orbital Insertion)1 ("Mars Surveyor 98 - Mars Climate Orbiter" in text) |
1The Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) was lost as it was occulted by Mars (went behind Mars as viewed from Earth). The root cause of the loss was found to be the use of English units for thruster performance data generated by a ground based computer program. This data was used in the construction of trajectory models for the spacecraft, and the modelers assumed the data was in metric units as per the specifications.
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