Regulus I Missile Mail container, 1959 (metal)

On June 8, 1959 the US Navy and the Post Office Department collaborated on a truly odd way of moving the mail. This is one of two containers that were filled with letters and placed inside a Regulus I missile which was then fired off the USS Barbero submarine. The missile landed 22 minutes later at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at Mayport, Florida. An enthusiastic Postmaster General Summerfield touted the possibilities of missile mail, but costs and practicality made that test firing the only incidence of using a missile to carry mail in the United States.