US Postal Service Returns to Webb Space Telescope for 2026 Priority Mail Stamps
The USPS has unveiled its latest stamps for the upcoming year, and the theme is unmistakably cosmic. For the third consecutive year, the 2026 Priority Mail stamps will showcase images from space captured by orbiting observatories. The Priority Mail stamp features a view of the Crab Nebula, while the Priority Mail Express stamp highlights a galaxy pair.
The USPS stated, “These new Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps celebrate America’s continued exploration of deep space with breathtaking images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope,” in an official release dated December 12.
Domestic Priority Mail deliveries typically arrive within one to three business days. By contrast, the Crab Nebula image on the 2026 Priority Mail stamp represents data collected from events that occurred about 6,500 light-years away, an image NASA first released in 2023.
Tea Temim of Princeton University, who led the Webb-based study using the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), explained: Webb’s high sensitivity and resolution allow scientists to analyze the nebula’s material composition, including iron and nickel, which helps illuminate the supernova that produced the Crab Nebula.
In Webb’s infrared view, NASA describes a “crisp, cage-like structure of fluffy gaseous filaments” rendered in a red-orange palette. The nebula’s central regions reveal yellow-white and green emissions from dust grains mapped by Webb for the first time.
Priority Mail Express is the USPS’s fastest option, guaranteed to reach most destinations within one to three days, including Sundays and holidays. This might explain why the 2026 stamp for Express features a dramatic look at two galaxies “passing in the night.” The composite image combines mid-infrared light from Webb with visible and ultraviolet data from the Hubble Space Telescope, showing the smaller spiral IC 2163 moving behind the larger NGC 2207 millions of years ago.
A closer inspection reveals bright red lines that may mark regions where material from the two galaxies collided. NASA published this scene online in 2024. The galaxy pair lies about 80 million light-years from Earth.
Greg Breeding, the USPS art director responsible for selecting NASA photographs, has chosen Webb-based images for the 2024 stamps (Pillars of Creation and Cosmic Cliffs), the 2025 stamps (Spiral Galaxy and Star Cluster), and now the 2026 issues. Webb was also featured on a 2022 Forever denomination stamp that presented an artist’s rendering of the deployed observatory in deep space.
A release date for the two 2026 stamps awaits approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission regarding new Flat Rate Envelope rates for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express. The USPS’s proposed changes would raise prices by about 6.6 percent for Priority Mail and 5.1 percent for Priority Mail Express, compared with 2025 prices of $10.10 and $31.40 per stamp, respectively.
