The Royal Mail has released a special edition range of stamps to commemorate the late, great David Bowie.

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However, you’re not going to see them stuck to some old letter. In homage to Bowie’s incredible role in Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 movie ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’, a full set of cover album stamps have been released into space.

Six of the stamps feature images of Bowie album covers: ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Aladdin Sane’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘Earthling’ and ‘Blackstar’. Another four stamps feature images of Bowie performing live on different tours including 1972’s The Ziggy Stardust Tour, 1978’s The Stage Tour, 1983’s The Serious Moonlight Tour and 2004’s A Reality Tour. The stamps were made available to buy from yesterday (March 14).

52 sets of these special stamps have now been sent up into the stratosphere on special helium balloons. After they burst, the stamps will start to hurtle towards earth at almost 200mph, slowing down to around 8mph before hitting the ground.

Royal Mail’s Philip Parker has said in a statement:

For five decades David Bowie was at the forefront of contemporary culture, and has influenced successive generations of musicians, artists, designers and writers. Royal Mail’s stamp issue celebrates this unique figure and some of his many celebrated personas.

Any chance we could get some of those to drop in and around the London area? Here’s hoping.

For more on the wonders of David Bowie, here are his 75 favourite books. Legend.