posted 10-13-2025 05:03 AM               

This year's ME-3 block of the Austrian Gmünder Weltraumfreunde astrophilatelic society shows the crew patch of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the first veterans of both countries who have been selected for a cruise flight, Don Pettit and Oleg Artemyev.

Pettit landed in the Kazakh steppe on 20.04.2025 — his 70th birthday — with Soyuz MS-26. Before that, he was on the ISS with the space shuttles STS-113 and STS-126 and with Soyuz TMA-03M. Artemyev is scheduled to fly to the ISS for the fourth time with Crew 12 in March or April 2026.

On Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, our special post office will open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the rooms of the Philatelic Association VÖPh, 1060 Vienna, Getreidemarkt 1. Austrian Post's Philatelic Day stamp pays tribute to Oleg Kononenko, who set the record of 1,110 days in space on Sept. 23, 2024, which he achieved in five space flights. It is handed in free of charge at the special post office for a purchase of 25 euros (€).

Oleg Artemyev signed C6 and B6 envelopes for us in July 2025 during his training at ESA in Cologne-Porz.

The Gmünder Weltraumfreunde offer:

• ME-3 souvenir sheet mint, never hinged: 10€
  
• Philatelic Day stamp mint, never hinged: 3€
  
• Postmark cover with ME-3 souvenir sheet: 11€
  
• Three postmark covers, each with a stamp from souvenir sheet: 13€
  
• Postmark cover with Philatelic Day stamp: 4€
  
• Postmark cover with ME-3 souvenir sheet, signed by Oleg Artemyev: 12€
  
• Three postmark covers, each with a souvenir sheet stamp and signed by Artemyev: 16€
  
• Special postmark cover with Philatelic Day stamp, signed by Artemyev: 5€