2011 Topps Heritage Baseball Trading Cards were released by The Topps Company, Inc. on March 14, 2011. The collection recreates the vintage wood-panel design of the 1962 Topps Baseball series.

Each hobby box contains 24 packs with 9 cards per pack. Retail boxes contain 12 with 9 cards per pack. Blaster boxes contain 8 packs with 9 cards per pack. Jumbo rack packs contain 16 cards. Insert odds vary for each release.

The odds of finding a "News Flashbacks 1962" insert are approximately 1:12 hobby/retail packs and 1:6 jumbo rack packs.

 

The ten-card "News Flashbacks 1962" subset includes a photograph of the launch of Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20, 1962. The Mercury No. 13 spacecraft Friendship 7 was lifted to orbit by the Atlas LV-3B 109-D launch vehicle. Astronaut John Glenn became the fifth human to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth.

"On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Piloting the Friendship 7 spacecraft, he circled the globe three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds. Glenn was hailed as a hero upon his return, receiving acclaim from President Kennedy and a ticker-tape parade."

 

The insert includes a NASA artist rendering of Mariner 2 (PIA04594) . The spacecraft was launched by an Atlas LV-3 Agena-B on August 27, 1962. Mariner 2 is the first successful interplanetary spacecraft. Mariner 2 passed as close as 21,607 miles (34,773 km) of Venus on December 14, 1962. The last transmission from Mariner 2 was received on January 3, 1963. The spacecraft is currently in heliocentric orbit around the Sun.

"On December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 became the first space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter. The craft, which could carry 40 pounds of scientific equipment, passed within 35,000 kilometers of Venus while measuring the temperature distribution on the surface and making atmospheric observations."