Due to their ubiquitous national circulation and internatioanl usage, stamps provide an effective vehicle for government propaganda, whether it be aimed at a domestic or international audience. Stamp illustration has proved to be a fertile field of depiction of a tremendous range of subjects, with almost no topic is too obscure to appear on stamps. The birth of Space Age gave rise to what is now one of the three most popular stamp collecting themes, astrophilately, but right from the outset space stamps became a propaganda weapon in the Cold War political contest between the United States and the USSR, as both sides vied to establish their ideological superiority through the technological successes of their space programs.

This paper considers the use of space-themed stamps and associated philatelic materials such as covers (envelopes), as propaganda tools during the Space Race. It examines aspects of the iconography and design of many astrophilatelic items which indicate both overt and subtle prograpanda intent, an attempt to relate them to contemporary political ideologies and national or international affairs.