
Rocket Mail - schaum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mail
======
m463
For a modest price (~$20), you can get a flight cover flown on the space
shuttle.

This is is an envelope with a cancellations for "Launched" and "Returned to
Earth" including Kennedy Space Center and Edwards.

Search for "STS-8 flight cover" on ebay.

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markvdb
Watch "Jour de fête", by Jacques Tati, 1949. There's a stunt film-in-the-film
about this kind of super efficient mail delivery methods.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jour_de_f%C3%AAte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jour_de_f%C3%AAte)
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040497/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040497/)

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code_scrapping
This is there just to remind us how boring our generation is. We used to
actually tried to convince people to send mail by shooting it in rockets, send
a man to the moon in a glorified can and fly around the world in zeppelins.
Compared to that, a slightly bigger portable television with 3 cameras instead
of 1 is just ... boring.

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falcor84
I entirely disagree. I spent yesterday utterly flabbergasted after watching
this Spot video [0] and thinking of the implications of this becoming
available to consumers soon.

[0] [https://youtu.be/wlkCQXHEgjA](https://youtu.be/wlkCQXHEgjA)

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ogre_codes
All this really needs is a better guidance system. I'm surprised there isn't a
startup for using artillery launched drones to deliver packages yet. Drop a
package anywhere within a 20 mile radius of the warehouse within 2 minutes.

~~~
trhway
electric ducted fan RC models easily reach 100+ miles/hour. 10 minutes instead
of 2, yet without all the really impossible to overcome in modern conditions
hassle of artillery. While full VTOL on launch may be a bit much, tilting the
ducts on return landing without payload you can even possibly have a smooth
low speed safe landing/recovery.

~~~
Smoosh
Zipline are already using small drones to deliver medicines in Africa:

[https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2019/apr/25/m...](https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2019/apr/25/medical-delivery-drones-cleared-for-takeoff-in-ghana-
zipline)

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Fnoord
The reverse of shipping a rocket by mail e.g. "The KGB Shipped a Sidewinder
Missile by Mail to Moscow. It cost $79.25." [1] IIRC this was featured in the
series The Americans [2] as well.

[1] [https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/fact-the-kgb-
ship...](https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/fact-the-kgb-shipped-
sidewinder-missile-by-mail-moscow-21673)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Americans)

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chiph
> Twenty-two minutes after launch, the missile struck its target.

But what condition was the mail in? Don't leave us hanging, wikipedia!

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nitwit005
This was the very first wikipedia page I saw. I hit the random button on the
main page.

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billpg
The second page you saw then.

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buboard
Explains Blue Origin

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aussieguy1234
Next up: Drone mail

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sampleinajar
I can't be the only one that thought this was going to be RocketMail, acquired
by Yahoo.

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flotwig
I wonder if that's where they got the name in the first place. I can't even
remember my old rocketmail address anymore.

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OrgNet
I remember mine, but Yahoo deleted my account after a short period of
inactivity... I wonder if anybody still have theirs. That is one reason why I
never had a Yahoo email address.

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bachmeier
I do, and still use it, though it's mostly been overrun with spam.

~~~
OrgNet
prove it and send me a quick one: i12im8+msyvo9klxnkc@sharklasers.com

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Groxx
> _The collection of philatelic material ( "stamps") used for (and depicting)
> rocket mail is part of a specialist branch of aerophilately known as
> astrophilately._

Wikipedia sub-categorizations are consistently amazing. Not sure if it's a
positive "amazing" or not, but it does amaze.

~~~
a3_nm
I doubt these terms were introduced by Wikipedia -- they're just reflecting
the diversity of things that exist out there.

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rossdavidh
Come on, Elon! Give us a mail delivery service where little rockets land
vertically, spit out our mail, and then take off again to go back where they
came from.

~~~
aussieguy1234
He's already planning a passenger service that does this. Not much of a step
further to include mail in the cargo.

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pjbk
Being this HN, I clicked and I was not disappointed.

