Soyuz TM-14/15 FLOWN MIR space station Aerogram

SOYUZ TM-15 / MIR “ANTARES” FLOWN AEROGRAMME

Crew-Signed • Triple MIR Onboard Postmark • Yuri Semenov Certification

An exceptional flown postal artifact from the historic Soyuz TM-15 mission to the MIR space station, measuring approximately 8 × 10 inches. The aerogramme retains its partial original prefolding and is hand-signed by the three-member Soyuz TM-15 launch crew:

Anatoly Solovyev — Commander
Sergei Avdeyev — Flight Engineer
Michel Tognini — French Research Cosmonaut

and the resident crew Viktorenko + Kaleri.

The aerogramme bears three separate postal cancellations applied aboard the MIR space station, providing important evidence of its presence in orbit. It is additionally certified by Yuri Pavlovich Semenov, who served at the time as Director General and General Designer of NPO Energia, the organization responsible for the Soyuz spacecraft and the operation of MIR. Semenov was one of the leading figures behind the Soyuz, Salyut and MIR programs.

Historical Background

Soyuz TM-15 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 27 July 1992 with the call sign Rodnik, meaning “Spring.” After a two-day independent flight, the spacecraft docked with MIR on 29 July 1992. Solovyev and Avdeyev became MIR’s 12th resident crew and remained aboard the station for more than six months, returning to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-15 on 1 February 1993.

Michel Tognini’s portion of the flight was known as Antares, the third French–Soviet/Russian cooperative mission. During his approximately two-week stay, Tognini carried out an extensive scientific program involving biomedical, physical and technological experiments. He was the third French space traveler to visit an orbital space station.

Upon arriving at MIR, the Soyuz TM-15 crew joined the existing resident cosmonauts:

Aleksandr Viktorenko — MIR-11 Commander
Aleksandr Kaleri — MIR-11 Flight Engineer

Tognini returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-14 with Viktorenko and Kaleri on 10 August 1992, while Solovyev and Avdeyev remained aboard MIR.

A Remarkable Moment in Human Spaceflight

During the Antares phase, Space Shuttle Atlantis was also orbiting Earth on mission STS-46 from 31 July to 8 August 1992. Its crew comprised:

Loren J. Shriver, Andrew M. Allen, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, Claude Nicollier, Marsha S. Ivins and Franco Malerba.

Together with the five people then aboard MIR—Solovyev, Avdeyev, Tognini, Viktorenko and Kaleri—this meant that 12 people were simultaneously in Earth orbit during part of the mission.

With its documented orbital use, three onboard MIR postmarks, complete Soyuz TM-15 crew signatures and certification by one of the most important leaders of the Russian human-spaceflight program, this aerogramme represents a significant and highly desirable artifact from the early post-Soviet era of international space cooperation.

Condition: Partially prefolded, as expected for an aerogramme. Please refer to the accompanying photographs for the exact condition, signatures, markings and postmarks.