Expedition 8/9 FLOWN ISS cover - crewsigned

Expedition 8 / Expedition 9 Flown ISS Cover – Signed by Five Spacefarers – April 29, 2004 – Jacques Bracke Collection

A scarce flown International Space Station cover, postmarked onboard the ISS on April 29, 2004, during the handover between Expeditions 8 and 9, and hand-signed by all five astronauts and cosmonauts then associated with the station: Michael Foale, Alexander Kaleri, Gennady Padalka, Edward “Mike” Fincke, and André Kuipers.

The date is especially significant. Expedition 8 Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri were completing more than six months aboard the ISS, while newly arrived Expedition 9 crewmembers Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke, together with ESA astronaut André Kuipers, had just docked aboard Soyuz TMA-4. Kuipers returned to Earth with Foale and Kaleri, marking the formal transition to Expedition 9.

Provenance: From the personal collection of renowned astrophilatelist Jacques Bracke.

A highly desirable flown and fully hand-signed artifact documenting an important ISS crew handover, uniting two consecutive expedition crews and one of Europe’s notable visiting astronauts on a single onboard-postmarked cover.