Get Ready to Geek Out Over These New Stamps...Seriously
Space exploration is honored in the 2016 stamps.
— -- The New Horizons flyby of Pluto -- one of the coolest moments in space exploration this year -- is being immortalized on two new stamps from the United States Postal Service.
After a nearly decade-long journey to Pluto, New Horizons stunned the world in July when it finally flew past the dwarf planet, sending back gorgeous images and new insights about the environment at the edge of the solar system.
The mission is being honored on two stamps, with one showing the piano-sized space probe and the second showing one of the first remarkably close images taken of Pluto. The honor has special meaning for the New Horizons team, who placed a 29-cent 1991 "Pluto: Not Yet Explored" stamp on the spacecraft before it launched in 2006.
"The New Horizons project is proud to have such an important honor from the U.S. Postal Service," Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, said in a statement. "Since the early 1990s the old, ‘Pluto Not Explored’ stamp served as a rallying cry for many who wanted to mount this historic mission of space exploration."
The Postal Service added to this year's space-themed line-up with the release of eight new colorful stamps showing NASA images of solar system planets, a stamp showing Earth's moon and a tribute stamp celebrating 50 years of "Star Trek."
