Postage stamps travel to the Cosmos

The fascination with the cosmos and ascending into space aboard a spaceship is something that many people, and especially children, have recreated in their fertile thoughts.

Movies like Star Wars and Star Trek were among my favorites of the science fiction genre. For that reason, and knowing that it was difficult to achieve that dream of being in that weightless environment, I was motivated to look for every postage stamp that dealt with this theme and that today I want to share with you in this post.

Through these miniatures on paper, it was a way to recreate, before my eyes, a reality and an environment totally different from the terrestrial environment where the human species lives and develops.

The ufological theme, everything related to UFOs and extraterrestrial beings, also awakened in me a great curiosity. Only that being a very controversial area, without a proven scientific basis for the generality of scientists who study astronomy, it did not have a valid basis for the creation of this type of stamps. I searched for them during my adolescence and did not find them.

Something we always remember is that the first terrestrial living being to go into space was Laika, a cute and intrepid Soviet dog, who in 1957 made history.

In 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, also Soviet, became the first human being to orbit the Earth.
Women could not be left behind. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova was the first female astronaut to travel alone into space.

One of the questions I always asked myself, and perhaps you too, was: how do astronauts in space relieve themselves in the bathroom?

Over time I learned that the lack of gravity, makes the water that is carried for that purpose, does not fall to the ground. It shows up in the form of bubbles on the skin and through an absorbent wet towel and liquid soap the astronaut cleans his body.

The toilet works by suction and has a reservoir that is changed after a few days. The urine is recycled through chemical processes and made potable for consumption.

Air quality is vital for living things and also for astronauts. Without oxygen, life cannot be sustained. In space, there is no gaseous atmosphere with oxygen as there is on Earth. For this reason, oxygen is created both on the spacecraft and on the station by electrolysis of water.

Cuba, this small archipelago shaped like a crocodile and surrounded by crystal clear waters, was proud to count in the history of space travel with Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a military man who, after his training in the Soviet Union, traveled into space in 1980, accompanied by his colleague and friend, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko.

To date, more than 600 people have traveled to the cosmos, some of them with fatal outcomes of their mission.

Now, at almost 60 years old, if you ask me if I still have the desire to go into space and move in that weightless world, I would answer “no”. One takes more care of oneself and takes one's steps through life with more caution and foresight.

Life is the most precious gift, and being healthy, sharing the small details and experiences of life, together with your family and loved ones, is more enriching and beautiful, than ascending to another very different environment, where darkness and emptiness, without air or pressure reign the stage.

So I prefer to know the life of astronauts through a book, a movie or what my postage stamps evoke. They travel to the cosmos with the history and design they reflect.