U.S. Stamp Sets Guinness Distance Record

On July 19th, the Guinness Book of Records will certify a U.S. 29-cent stamp as the postage stamp that has traveled the furthest, ever — to Pluto and beyond. The 9 a.m. EDT ceremony at U.S. Postal Service headquarters will be live-streamed on Facebook: www.facebook.com/USPS

PLUTOSome background from the USPS: A 1991 Pluto: Not Yet Explored stamp that traveled more than 3 billion miles on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto has earned the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ achievement for the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp.

Launched Jan. 19, 2006, on one of the fastest rockets ever built, New Horizons’ 9.5 year trek to Pluto reached 36,000 mph on the July 14, 2015, flyby. To place the rocket’s power in perspective, it took three days for Apollo 11 to reach the moon. New Horizons passed the moon in nine hours.

This record will extend another billion miles, as NASA recently announced the New Horizons mission will journey beyond Pluto to visit a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 — considered to be one of the early building blocks of the solar system.

s_plutoThe Postal Service learned of the 29-cent stamp’s journey on the eve of the flyover and quickly put plans into place to set the record straight as noted in NASA’s celebratory photo above.

For details on the 2016 U.S. stamps for Pluto, click here.