Episode
Rocket Mail: when the Postal Service attempted to deliver mail via cruise missile
- Podcast
- History Dispatches
- Published
- Sep 4, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1305
- Processing state
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Summary
There are many ways that we deliver mail today: car, truck, ship, plane, on foot. But one thing mail doesn't do is travel via rocket. Except for when the US Post Office tried to do so in 1959 by loading 3,000 letters onto a cruise missile. This is the story of Rocket Mail. Sources https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/experimenting-with-rockets/ https://postalmuseum.si.edu/collections/object-spotlight/regulus-missile-mail-letter https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/fad-to-fundamental-airmail-in-america-historic-airplanes-unusual-and-experimental/missile https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mail-delivery-rocket-never-took-180963557/ Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Missilemail.jpg History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices