This section shows covers produced for various training missions. These training missions, often involving a dummy or boilerplate capsule, were designed to train ship personnel and access their readiness prior to the actual mission. Ships involved in such missions were not always the ships that finally were involved in the next actual mission. There is little documentation and few covers exist for such missions. Such covers are extremely rare.
| Mission | Description |
| Mercury 6 | Patrick AFB Navy Recovery Team Swimmers practicing for Glenn's Flight |
| Mercury 81 | USS Hancock |
| Mercury 81 | USS Intrepid |
| Mercury 81 | USS Yorktown |
Gemini Training Missions
Gemini 2 - USS Wallace L. Lind2
Gemini-Apollo Boilerplate Recovery
28 June 1963 - in Galveston Bay5 (a very rare cover)
Apollo Training Missions
Apollo 10 - USS Myles C. Fox4
| Date | Description |
| 7 June 2017 | Dragon Recovery Training |
| 5 November 2018 | SpaceX Recovery Crew trails |
| 3 January 2019 | Recovery Ship Go Searcher with Crew Dragon Test Article sea trail |
| 16 January 2019 | Recovery Ship Go Searcher with DM-1 sea trail |
| 1 February 2019 | Recovery Ship Go Searcher with Crew Dragon Test Article |
| 27 February 2019 | Recovery Ship Go Searcher with Crew Dragon Test Article |
| 19 January 2020 | Recovery Ship Go Searcher returns with Crew Dragon capsule |
| 12 May 2020 | SpaceX GO Navigator Conducts DM-2 Recovery Training |
Notes:
1) The designated mission is the next scheduled actual mission and is used for reference purposes only.
2) From the collection of Steve Durst.
4) While marked as training for Apollo 10 the mission was actually a training exercse for quarantine procedures for the first Moon landing mission, including the use of the Apollo quarantine trailer. Eventually, this turned out to be Apollo 11 but at the time there was speculation that the first Moon landing would be Apollo 10, hence the cover's caption. The training exercise was in the Atlantic. See http://mylescfoxdd829.net/DD829_Short_History.htm .
5) Sold on eBay 2012
This page © Dr Ross J Smith
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Last modified on 26 April 2021
