There's one event which goes back to one of my very first memories. I was four-and-half years old, and as usual I had gone to bed to sleep in time. However, that night my mother took me out of bed. What would happen?
The whole family (that is, the four of us) was gathered around our old, then brand new, black-and-white t.v.
I don't remember the programm exactly, but the memory gaps have been filled by the images I've seen later in life.
It was 1969, and it was Neil Armstrong who said (while doing it) "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind".
Twenty-five years later this stamp was issued in the Netherlands, to commemorate this amazing event. The text you see is the Dutch translation of Neil Armstrong's words.
There have been many more in space. For instance the famous dog Laika, who was the first animal who went in orbit around the Earth. There is a stamp commemorating this unfortunate pioneer, which has been issued in 1959 in Romania. You can see that stamp here.
More lucky space journeys than the one Laika was submitted to, have been made by 'our' (read: Dutch) astronauts. In the Netherlands there only have been two of them, so far. They never stepped on the moon, but they did interesting research in space, and showed magnicifent pictures of our world to all of us. A world which, viewed from space, looks very small...
The first Dutch astronaut was Wubbo Ockels. Sadly he passed away, exactly one week ago.
As far as I know there haven't been issued stamps about him. But I was happy to see him connected to a stamp: I found this picture, of Wubbo Ockels presenting the stamp you see above, in 1994.
The other Dutch Astronaut is André Kuipers. He has been travelling in space twice. The most recent journey has been between December 2011 and July 2012, for which the Dutch Post issued this stamp sheet:
Also André Kuipers is a very sympathetic person, and I think he is both fond of laughing and fond of sharing knowledge.
In his online photoalbum he shares amazing pictures with all of us. You can find his photostream here.
My favourite picture, which has been in many newspapers, too, is the one in which he plays with weightlessness: you can see a bubble of air in a drop of water. I think this beautiful photo worth a stamp, too :-)
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