Ice-hockey stamps on personal flown letter to space station

Description

The letter with Ice-hockey stamps from Olympic Sochi-city was cancelled aboard the space station with a
very rare board seal
.
2013
Space Mail Letter
regarded to Expedition 38 mission aboard the
International Space Station
was delivered to the Space Station by the Russian “Progress M-22M” unmanned supply spacecraft. The letter is addressed to Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov to the ISS.
First, on December 1, 2013, the letter was sent by registered mail from Sochi to Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star town – Russian Cosmonaut Training Center) where it was handed over to be put into the cargo supply spacecraft. Having been delivered to the ISS, the letter was marked with the following seals: the
“ISS”
octagonal board seal; the “
Russian Post. ISS. Russian Segment
” board post mark and the
“Russian Segment of International Space Station”
board souvenir seal both dated February 6, 2014, the day when the Russian
Progress M-22M
unmanned supply spacecraft docked with the ISS.
The most interesting and important
in this letter is the “
Russian Segment of International Space Station
” board souvenir seal. At that time, it was a new board souvenir seal. The previous one with the same picture was impossible to be used after December 2013.
This new board souvenir date-stamp was delivered to the International Space Station by the Russian “Progress M-22M” unmanned supply spacecraft on February 06, 2014.
T
his souvenir seal was used aboard the ISS only since 6 February till 28 March 2014.
Very few letters delivered by Progress M-22M were cancelled with this seal.
During that mission, cosmonaut Oleg Kotov worked on board the ISS since September 26, 2013 till March 11, 2014.
So, this letter is a real document of the “Earth to Space” postal communication and may considered to be as an example of the modern postal history.
For the
Ice-hockey memorabilia
collectors:
The upper Russian postage stamp is devoted to Anatoli Firsov,
one of the world-famous
Soviet hockey players, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He
won three Olympic (1964, 1968, 1972) and eight
Ice Hockey World Championships
.
H
e won the scoring title four times and was named the best forward three times at Ice Hockey World Championships.
Six times he was a w
inner of the European Champions Cup
(
IIHF European Cup) in 1969—1974.
In 1998, he was inducted to the IIHF Hall of Fame.
Envelope size C6 (11,4 × 15,6 cm)
International shipping from Moscow, Russia to USA, Canada, Europe, Asia usually takes 15 - 25 days. Please, be patient. The buyers will be informed about tracking number of the registered pack.
Payment via PayPal.
In according to the buyer’s request, the English translation of the handwritten message will be provided.