The artist, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, has also recorded collaborations with some of the most prominent names in music, including Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel and Prince.

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Tuesday's announcement comes nine months after the unveiling of a similar project by Planetary Resources, a company led by space tourism pioneers Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis.

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The collector's item stamps featuring caricatures of Les Dawson, Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe, Joyce Grenfell and Peter Cook go on sale on Thursday.

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The company, known as Planetary Resources, is also backed by space tourism pioneer Eric Anderson, X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis, Ross Perot Jr, son of the former US presidential candidate, and veteran astronaut Tom Jones.

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Eric Meek, RSPB area manager in Orkney said Sir Peter, widely known as Max, was "a highly intelligent man who cares about what is going on in the world".

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Eric recently played a critical role in reporting major stories about Peter Thiel and Yuri Milner, both hugely successful VCs and FORBES billionaires.

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Accountant Janet Copeland and her husband, Peter, a retired corporate attorney, bought the 1949 Eric Brown House in Kalamazoo, Mich.

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Khosla Ventures run by uber venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, the Founders Fund from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Innovation Endeavors from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt contributed to the round.

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