German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany)

Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) 

1958 International Geophysical Year

5th February 1958

Set issued to mark International Geophysical Year. 

It depicts a balloon used for stratospheric research, and a ship using echo-sounding for deep sea research.

The International Geophysical Year (IGY; French: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 opened the way for this new era of collaboration. Sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects. The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity. The timing of IGY was particularly suited to some of these phenomena, since it covered the peak of solar cycle 19.

Both the Soviet Union and the U.S. launched artificial satellites for this event; the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, launched on October 4, 1957, was the first successful artificial satellite. Other significant achievements of the IGY included the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts and the discovery of mid-ocean submarine ridges, an important confirmation of plate tectonics. Also detected was the rare occurrence of hard solar corpuscular radiation that could be highly dangerous for manned space flight.

Michel Catalogue Number: 616 - 617

Stamp Number DD 371-372
Yvert et Tellier DD 327-328
Stanley Gibbons DD E343-E344
AFA number DD 420-421

Please note:

You can combine purchases to minimise postage costs.

• 1-9 eligible items - single charge
• 10+ eligible items - postage is free.

If purchasing more than one item, please DO NOT PAY FOR ITEMS SEPARATELY as ebay will charge you postage on every single item.

Instead, add your choices to the shopping cart (use "add to cart").

When you have finished shopping you can view your cart to finalise and pay for the lot at checkout, when your purchases should be automatically combined with the correct postage cost (if any).

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/buying/paying-items/shopping-cart?id=4360

-> The free postage for 10 or more items is for regular postage without tracking. If you require tracking, you need to select the postage method that provides tracking at checkout.