Article No.: 10926
An exceptional flown Mir space station cover dated January 15, 1997, the day following the historic docking of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-81, and signed by members of the Shuttle and Mir crews.
STS-81 was the fifth Shuttle-Mir docking mission and carried Michael Baker, Brent Jett, John Grunsfeld, Marsha Ivins, Peter “Jeff” Wisoff, Jerry Linenger, and returning Mir resident John Blaha. Awaiting them aboard Mir were Valery Korzun and Alexander Kaleri, who had arrived aboard Soyuz TM-24 and formed the core Mir-22 crew. During the mission, Linenger replaced Blaha as the resident NASA astronaut aboard Mir, while Atlantis transferred nearly 6,000 pounds of equipment and supplies—the largest Shuttle-Mir logistics transfer achieved to that date.
The cover is especially distinguished by five onboard Mir postal cancellations, including one on the reverse, and by a handwritten certification by Mir Commander Valery Korzun confirming that the cover was flown. It originally came from Korzun’s personal collection, providing unusually direct cosmonaut provenance.
Provenance: Ex. personal collection of Valery Korzun; subsequently from the personal collection of renowned astrophilatelist Jacques Bracke.
A highly desirable flown artifact from the Shuttle-Mir program, combining multiple onboard cancellations, crew signatures, direct commander certification, and distinguished dual provenance from one of the most important periods of U.S.–Russian cooperation preceding the International Space Station.