Pitcairn Island lays claim to a secret space satellite program featured on a July 7, 2000 souvenir sheet. The accompanying text to the sheet mentions a secret program that was initiated in 1966 to build an airstrip on Henderson Island, a small uninhabited island near Pitcairn. The base was to be used for planes recovering film canisters detached from spy satellites circling the earth.
Although U.S. Air Force planes did indeed catch jettisoned satellite film containers in mid-air over the Pacific for many years, the aircraft were based in California and the idea of an airbase in the Pitcairns was never approved. It is unlikely that the scene depicted on the two stamps—that of survey and supply operations ever took place.
The souvenir sheet was released on the opening day of the World Stamp Expo 2000 show in Anaheim, California. Like many of the other stamps and souvenir sheets issued in conjunction with the World Stamp Expo, this sheet reflects the show's space theme.
