In 1985, cigarettes and cigars were still big business, prior to the governmental restrictions on tobacco and the raising of awareness of the effects of nicotine. Tobacco companies were still offering some free gifts with certain brands and John Player included a series of cards in their Tom Thumb cigar range.
'The Exploration of Space' was a 32 card set of larger format cards at 7.5 cm x 5.5 cm. The series was a mixed bag of general space themed images, ranging from early space programme shots, to astronomical data, through the classic Apollo era to the Columbia shuttle. The larger format card lent itself well to some of the more spectacular images, but reproduction of some of the older and more widely used shots is a little poor.
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| ANGRY ALLIGATOR |
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| APOLLO CSM |
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| ONE SMALL STEP |
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| EXPLORER 1 |
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| SHUTTLE COLUMBIA |
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| WEIGHTLESS CONDITIONS |
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| YURI GAGARIN |
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| ASCENT STAGE |
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| NEILL ARMSTRONG |
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| EARTH FROM SPACE |
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| SATURN V |
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| TAURUS LITROW CRATER |
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| LIFT OFF |
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| SKYLAB |
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| SOYUZ LAUNCH |
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| SOYUZ CAPSULE |
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| LUNAR ROVING VEHICLE |
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| SPLASHDOWN |
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| TELSTAR |
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| SPUTNIK 3 |
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| FUTURE PROJECTS |
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| TRANQUILITY BASE |
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| CREW TRANSFER |
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| SPACEWALK |