In 1959, the US Navy launched a Regulus I missile containing 3,000 letters from Virginia to Florida in 22 minutes. The experiment showcased missile guidance technology during the Cold War, but rocket mail never became a practical postal delivery method. The missile’s storage space was originally designed for a nuclear warhead. The Postmaster General predicted mail delivery via guided missiles before manned spaceflight. The Regulus I was the only missile to carry mail into the US, and some letters sold for $100 or more.
United States Domestic Air Mail was formally established as a class of service by the United States Post Office on May 15, 1918, when bags of mail were transported between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1959, the United States Navy took mail delivery to the next level by packing a Regulus I cruise missile with mail aboard the submarine USS Barbero, docked in Norfolk, Virginia, and launching it at Naval Air Station Mayport, Florida . The missile, containing 3,000 letters symbolically addressed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and other government officials, made the 100-mile (161 km) journey in 22 minutes. While “rocket mail” never caught on as a practical method of postal delivery, the experiment succeeded as a not-so-subtle way to showcase the US military’s state-of-the-art missile guidance system during the Cold War.
The first and only missile mail:
The storage space used for mail was originally designed to hold the missile’s nuclear warhead. The Regulus was capable of delivering mass destruction to a target 600 miles (966 km) away.
US Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield was ecstatic, saying, “Before man reaches the Moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, Great Britain, India or Australia via guided missiles” . However, it was the only time a missile carried mail into the United States.
Some of the Regulus I letters found their way into private collections over the next few years and sold for $100 USD or more.
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