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Remembering Columbia.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

It's been a little more a year since the space shuttle Columbia exploded as it re-entered 
the atmosphere.

It's not likely there will be any U-S stamps regarding that tragedy any time soon. The 
Postal Service has a rule against honoring people within ten years of their deaths, and 
doesn't like to commemorate disasters. There have not yet been stamps for the Apollo 1 or 
Challenger accidents.

Israel, however, is issuing a stamp later this month to honor its first astronaut, Ilan 
Ramon <EE-lahn rah-MOAN>, a member of the Columbia crew. It shows a portrait of Ramon 
and a photo of Israel as seen from the shuttle, and comes in a sheet of 10 stamps. The margin 
area of the sheet shows a larger picture of the space shuttle, the Israeli and U-S flags, and 
a silhouette of Ramon looking at the sunrise from Columbia.

Each stamp is two-point-60 Shekels, or about 58-cents -- more than enough to cover letters to 
the U-S, even if there's a rate increase.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


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