Page 78 - Italy In Space
P. 78
ITALIAN ASTRONAUTS IN SPACE [5]
December 16, 2010. Launch of Soyuz TMA-20 from Baikonur. The Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli
became the Europe‟s third astronaut, and Italy‟s first, to participate in a six-month mission to the ISS.
The cover was flown to the ISS and cancelled at lift-off in Baikonur and then onboard with the official
postmark of the ISS Russian Segment on the day of docking (Dec. 17, 2010), Cosmonautics day (Apr.
12, 2011 – 50th of Gagarin) and undocking (May 24, 2011). The octagonal blue ISS seal was added.
COVER FLOWN IN SPACE
Paolo Nespoli‟s duties aboard the ISS included participating in the docking operations to receive on
February 24, 2011 the visit of Europe‟s ATV-2, Johannes Kepler which also delivered few philatelic
covers. Paolo Nespoli marked few of them with the seal of his MagISStra mission, and also added the
octagonal blue ISS onboard seal. COVER FLOWN IN SPACE
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