Posts: 193
From: W.Sussex United Kingdom
Registered: May 2003

posted 12-18-2021 12:32 PM               

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As a collector of signed Soviet and Russian material I've noticed a scarcity of signed Soyuz 10 material.

Signed covers from the early Soyuz flights seems fairly common, with the obvious exception of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11, but why Soyuz 10? All three crew members seemed to sign other material; Shatalov and Yeliseyev from earlier flights on Soyuz 4, 5 and 8, and Rukavishnikov from later flights on Soyuz 16 and 33.

The mission did not achieve its objectives of delivering the first crew to Salyut 1 and so I don't believe a stamp was issued to commemorate the flight – hence no covers, but that wouldn't have stopped the crew signing other material. It is because the flight was deemed a failure and everyone, crew as well, would prefer not to remember or commemorate it in any way.

Does anyone have a cover signed by the Soyuz 10 crew?

Posts: 490
From: Czech Republic-Europe
Registered: Oct 2007

Posts: 1297
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 12-19-2021 02:35 PM               

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Each of the Soyuz 10 crew has autographed covers. I believe they respond through Star City.

On edit: Correction Rukavishnikov is deceased.

Posts: 742
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003

posted 12-20-2021 03:06 PM               

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All Soyuz 10 cosmonauts freely signed. Crew signed covers might be scarcer than others missions since no stamp for this flight was issued. Thus no First Day Covers exist. Launch covers from Leninsk are scarce in spite of the facts that most are probably backdated.

On 15.6.2021 Vladimir Shatalov passed away. RIP

Posts: 2111
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 12-20-2021 04:16 PM               

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Back in the 1980s, when I was a far more ardent collector of space-related autographs, I sent a glossy B&W photo of the Soyuz-10 crew to each of them in turn, and eventually I had all three signatures, nicely inscribed and dated on it.

I was recently mentioning to a friend that in those earlier days, most of the astronauts and cosmonauts had beautiful, full signatures - unlike today where you are lucky if you get an initial followed by a hastily-drawn squiggle; totally unreadable but still expensive if purchased.

Posts: 1586
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003