posted 08-15-2018 03:05 PM               

Space Cover 478: Soyuz T-13 mission to recover Salyut 7

Soyuz T-13 was a mission to save doomed Salyut 7 station that developed power and subsequent communications disruptions. Soyuz T-13 was piloted by Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Victor Savinykh. The mission had several breakpoints and chances for success were lower than for failure. The guidance towards the station was done by Soviet anti-missile defense and the final approach and docking, Vladimir Dzhanibekov performed manually. By the end the crew managed to recover the station against all the odds. For obvious reasons were no covers onboard, moreover no stamp was issued for the flight, that was normal in Soviet postal service, making it one of only a couple of flights that got no dedicated stamp.

The shown cover was cancelled in Baikonur on the launch date with smart combination of stamps for Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Victor Savinykh previous flights. In June 1995, on the 10th anniversary event for Soyuz T-13 mission, a small presentation was held in Tsiolkovsky museum in Kirov, with the participants of this adventure. Below is the cover with the special event cancellation, museum postal cancellation and signatures of Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Victor Savinykh.