Boing Starliner 2019 FLOWN ISS cover + letter Ovchinin

2019 ISS-Flown Cover and Two-Page Handwritten Letter by Commander Alexey Ovchinin — Boeing CST-100 Starliner Cachet

An exceptional combination of space-flown postal history, handwritten cosmonaut correspondence and Boeing Commercial Crew memorabilia.

The lot comprises an ISS-flown commemorative cover, postmarked aboard the International Space Station on 26 June 2019, together with a remarkable two-page handwritten letter by Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, separately postmarked onboard the station on 25 June 2019.

These dates give the material particular historical significance. Expedition 59 had concluded only one day earlier, when the departing Soyuz MS-11 crew undocked and command of the International Space Station passed to Ovchinin. He then began Expedition 60 as station commander, serving alongside NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch. The letter was therefore written and postmarked during Ovchinin’s first days in command of the orbiting laboratory.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner Connection

The cover bears a special cachet commemorating Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, the reusable crew spacecraft developed with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to transport astronauts and cargo to and from low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Boeing designed Starliner to carry as many as seven people, although NASA missions were planned around crews of up to four astronauts together with research and other cargo.

When this cover was postmarked in June 2019, Starliner had not yet made its first orbital flight. Boeing was preparing for the spacecraft’s inaugural uncrewed Orbital Flight Test, which launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V on 20 December 2019. Although a mission-timing anomaly prevented that flight from reaching the ISS, the capsule completed an abbreviated test mission and landed successfully at White Sands, New Mexico, on 22 December.

The cachet therefore captures an important transitional moment in American human spaceflight: the period when Boeing’s Starliner was still approaching its long-awaited orbital debut and was expected to become one of the principal spacecraft carrying astronauts from the United States to the ISS. 

Collector Highlights

• Flown aboard the International Space Station
• ISS onboard postmark dated 26 June 2019
• Accompanied by a two-page handwritten letter
• Written by Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin
• Letter postmarked onboard the ISS on 25 June 2019
• Produced during Ovchinin’s first days as Expedition 60 commander
• Special cachet commemorating the Boeing CST-100 Starliner
• Predates Starliner’s first orbital test flight by approximately six months
• Combines astrophilately, handwritten space correspondence and Commercial Crew history

A highly desirable and visually compelling artefact linking the established history of the International Space Station with the emerging generation of American commercial crew spacecraft. The presence of Ovchinin’s substantial handwritten letter elevates the item far beyond a conventional flown cover, providing a direct and personal connection to life aboard the ISS at a historically important moment in the station’s command and in the development of Boeing Starliner.