Special stamps paying tribute to the late music legend David Bowie have been launched towards space. The 10-stamp set featuring images from some of Bowie’s most admired album covers and of the star on stage, were created to honour the musician after he died from cancer in January 2016 aged 69.

Fifty-two sets of the stamps have now been propelled into the stratosphere on special helium balloons, as an homage to Bowie’s role in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth. The number was chosen to represent the 52 years of Bowie’s professional recording career. The flight reached 34,100m at a vertical speed of about 12mph.

After the balloons burst, the stamps will have started to descend at nearly 200mph, slowing to approximately 8mph by the time they reached the ground.

The Royal Mail stamps were all postmarked with a special edition red handstamp of the thunderbolt from the cover of Bowie’s 1973 record Aladdin Sane. Fans who correctly guess where “the stamps that fell to earth” landed can win one of the limited edition first day covers. The Bowie stamps are also on sale.

The set features images from album covers including Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, Heroes, Let’s Dance and Earthling. Others show Bowie performing live on tours across four decades.