Today The United States Postal Service (USPS) is honoring the 50th anniversary of America's first manned spaceflight with a New Stamp Issue

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is honoring the 50th anniversary of America's first manned spaceflight with the issuance of two new commemorative stamps. Join us for the First-Day-of-Issue Stamp Ceremony, featuring Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter and NASA and USPS officials, in the Rocket Garden on May 4, 2011, at 2:00 p.m.

One stamp salutes NASA’s Project Mercury, America’s first manned spaceflight program and NASA astronaut Alan Shepard’s historic flight on May 5, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7. The other stamp draws attention to NASA’s unmanned MESSENGER Mission, a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury.

On March 17, 2011, MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to enter into orbit around Mercury. These two historic missions frame a remarkable fifty-year period in which America has advanced space exploration through more than 1,500 manned and unmanned flights.

The Project Mercury stamp depicts Shepard, the Mercury capsule Freedom 7 and the Redstone rocket launching. The MESSENGER Mission stamp depicts the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury.

The Project Mercury and MESSENGER Mission stamps will be issued as Forever Stamps for use in mailing a one-ounce letter. Regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used, no matter how prices may change in the future, these stamps will always be equal to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.

The USPS First-Day-of-Issue Ceremony is included with admission to the Visitor Complex.

Source:  http://kennedyspacecenter.com/stamp-ceremony.aspx