Limited edition flown ‘Apollo 15’ commemorative that was carried to the International Space Station (ISS) during the Expedition 65/66 mission in April 2021. Numbered 6/15, the cover bears a cachet honoring the “First Lunar Post Office, Moon, August 2, 1971,” and features a pair of 8-cent ‘United States in Space…A Decade of Achievement’ stamps, the exact type found on the lunar cover that CDR Dave Scott famously canceled on the surface of the moon before their final EVA. The two ‘Decade’ stamps on Scott’s EVA cover were the only examples flown on Apollo 15, a distinction that makes these flown ISS versions a rare and attractive alternative. The cover is signed in ballpoint by seven members from Expedition 65/66: Pyotr Dubrov, Mark T. Vande Hei, Oleg Novitsky, Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet. The cover features three anniversary postmarks for historic space achievements: the Apollo 15 lunar post office, the historic Mercury flight of Alan Shepard, and the flight of the Apollo 14 mission. In very fine condition. Flown ISS covers with signatures from the respective astronaut crews are quite rare and exist in highly limited editions of 15 to 30 covers per flight. An appealing space-philatelic rarity of modern space flight history.
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