Bidspirit auction | Cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov signed Space

Cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov signed Space Shuttle return to flight envelope. Shatalov had dreams of flying even higher but was worried he may be too old to train as a cosmonaut. When Yuri Gargarin became the first man in space in April 1961, he was a full seven years younger. However, in 1962 Shatalov was asked to nominate the five best pilots under his command for consideration as cosmonauts and put his own name forward at the top of the list. He passed the medical exam and then the interview in Moscow, which included Gagarin himself on the panel.[3] By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force No.14 on 10 January 1963, Shatalov was enrolled in the Cosmonaut Training Center as a listener-cosmonaut. From January 1963 to January 1965, Shatalov underwent general space training. He studied the systems, design and operating rules of the spacecraft Vostok 3A, Voskhod, Voskhod 2, and Soyuz. On 13 January 1965, after passing the exams, Shatalov was qualified as an Air Force cosmonaut. On 23 January 1965, Shatalov was appointed cosmonaut of the 2nd Detachment (Military Space Programs). Shatalov was in space three times. He made his first flight on 14 January 1969, on the Soyuz-4 spacecraft. It was the first to carry out manual rendezvous and docking with Soyuz-5. With his participation, for the first time in the world, an experimental space station was created and the transition through open space of cosmonauts Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov from the Soyuz-5 spacecraft to the Soyuz-4 was carried out.[5][6] There was no internal connecting corridor between the two craft, and so the crew had to step into space using handrails on the craft in order to carry out the transition. For his part in this feat, he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded The Order of Lenin. Single Vendor collection of RAF Museum official covers, cosmonauts, Navy covers, FDCs. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £5.99, EU from £7.99, Rest of World from £9.99.