Russian Rockets

1978: Soviet-Polish Space Flight (Designer - G. Komlev)

The massive Russian rockets needed to break free of Earth's gravity are being transported into place.   This Soyuz 30 rocket took off in 1978 with Commander Pyotr Klimuk on his third and last spaceflight and for Major Miroslaw Hermaszewski, the first Polish cosmonaut in space, it would be his only flight.

Their destination was the Space Station Salyut 6 where Hermaszewski would conduct the Sirena crystallization experiment to produce semiconductors in weightlessness and the stamp shows the crystal. The other stamp is the space station, map and the scientific research ship Vladimir Komarov tracking the progress of Salyut.

The set is part of a long series which ran from 1978-81 devoted to the Intercosmos programme which took a succession of guest cosmonauts from countries that were political allies of the Soviet Union into space.

1978: Soviet-Czech Space Flight (Designer - G Komlev)

 The first Intercosmos flight was launched on 2nd March 1978 (Soyuz 28) with Vladimir Remek from Czechoslovakia who became the first man in space who did not come from either the USSR or USA. Remek was later, in 2004, elected as a member of the European Parliament and has an asteroid named after him. The commander on board was Alexsei Gubarev on his second and last space flight.

Two of the great Soviet stamp designers of the period , German Komlev and Yuri Levinovsky were commissioned to produce three stamps for each of the nine Intercosmos missions.  Komelev did the first four sets and Levinovsky the rest.  The concept was for each set of three to have one design illustrating preparation for the mission, one the flight itself and one an end-of mission scenario. These would be issued in real time with the 6k value available on the day of the launch, a 15k on the day of docking with the space station and a 32k on the day of re-entry and landing.  Only 26 of the 27 stamps were issued because the Soyuz 33 flight failed to dock with the Salyut 6 space station when its primary engine failed and had to make an emergency return to Earth.  The sometimes perilous nature of space travel.

1962: 40th Anniversary of All Union Lenin Pioneer Organisation (Designer - Yu. Ryakhovsky)

Perhaps it is safer to keep ones feet on the ground and build a model rocket with these budding aerospace engineers.

The Sunday Stamp II prompt this week is R - here for Russia and rockets - take off with See It On A Postcard