May 1961 President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to landing
a manned spacecraft on the Moon "before this decade is out." The name given
to the program was Apollo ( named for the Greek God of distance ) and would
employ a single Saturn V launch vehicle to send the three-man Apollo
spacecraft, weighing some 100,000 pounds ( 45,000 kilos ),
on a path toward the Moon. After about 3 days, as the craft approached the
Moon, its own propulsion system would place it in an orbit around the lunar
surface. Then one element of the spacecraft, the Lunar Module, with two
people aboard, would separate from the mother ship
and be flown toward the surface, while the third man circled the Moon
in the other section of the spacecraft.

After a soft landing on the lunar surface the two spacemen would make their
observations and collect samples, then they would take off from the surface
and fly toward a rendezvous with the encircling spacecraft.Presented here are
the actual 'flight recovery envelopes' posted aboard the US Naval Ships
responsible for picking up the manned capsules after they parachuted into the
ocean. A cachet adorns each envelope; showing a mission logo ( e.g. space
capsule etc. ) naming the mission. The postmark gives the name of the US
Naval vessel that made the recovery along with the actual date.