The United States Postal Service (USPS) is gearing up to honor NASA's historic flyby of Pluto with a new set of postage stamps, among a flotilla of other space-themed stamps, and we can't wait to buy a lifetime supply.
Back in the early 1990s, the USPS issued a set of stamps commemorating the planets in our solar system and the year we visited them. Pluto was the only stamp labeled "not yet explored."
That changed when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in July, 2015. Even though Pluto isn't classified as a planet anymore, the USPS has designed a stamp declaring it "Explored!"
"Since the early 1990s the old, 'Pluto Not Explored' stamp served as a rallying cry for many who wanted to mount this historic mission of space exploration," New Horizons lead scientists Alan Stern said in a press release. "Now that NASA's New Horizons has accomplished that goal, it's a wonderful feeling to see these new stamps join others commemorating first explorations of the planets."
The stamps will be dedicated between May and June at the World Stamp Show in New York, after which they'll be ready for purchase, according to the USPS.
The USPS will also dedicate a series with updated images of all the planets in our solar system. The full planet discs are shown in enhanced color:
And in one more win for nerds, USPS will also honor the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the TV show "Star Trek" with a set of stamps.
The stamps seem especially fitting since Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played the iconic role of Spock in the series, died in 2015.
You don't even have to be a "Trekkie" to appreciate them (though it helps if you are):
Top left: the starship Enterprise against a Starfleet symbol, top right: a crew member standing on a transporter, bottom left: a silhouette of the Enterprise, bottom right: the Enterprise against the outline of a Vulcan salute.
There's no word yet on exactly when the "Star Trek" stamps will go on sale, but the design suggests it will be sometime next year.