Cover from Russia. Thank you Elena !

Nice postcard from Russia. Thank you Irina !!!.

Nice postcardr from Russia. Thank you Lena!!!

Nice card from Russia. Thank you Anna !

Gherman Titov. Nice card form Soviet Union

From Wikipedia:

Gherman Stepanovich Titov (Russian: Герман Степанович Титов) (September 11, 1935–September 20, 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut and, in 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1.

Titov flew the Vostok 2 mission launched on 6 August 1961. It lasted for 25.3 hours and he performed 17 orbits of the earth. His call sign was Eagle (Russian: Орёл). He landed close to the town of Krasny Kut in Saratov Oblast, Russia. A month short of 26 years old at launch, he remains the youngest person to fly in space.Titov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, as were all the Soviet cosmonauts.

Nice cover from Belarus. Thank you Natasha!!!!

From www.belpost.by:

Historical reference: The Games of the XXIX Olympiad were held in Beijing, the capital of China, on August 8-24, 2008.181 athletes represented Belarus. They took part in 26 events.

On June 2010 the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne resolved to repudiate the charges of doping against Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan and to return them the silver and bronze medals won at the Olympiad in Beijing.

After the Court resolution the Belarus team took the 15th place among 204 countries that participated in the Games.

30 Belarus athletes won 19 medals: 4 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze

On this cover: No. 837 Prize winners of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. Weightlifting 1000 BYR
No. 838 Prize winners of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. Rowing and canoeing 1000 BYR

Nice first day cover from Portugal. Thank you Manuel !

Plestek Cosmodrome. Thank you LENA !!!.

From Wikipedia
Plesetsk Cosmodrome (Russian: Космодром «Плесецк») is a Russian spaceport, located in Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk.

Plesetsk Cosmodrome was originally developed by the Soviet Union as a launch site for intercontinental ballistic missiles. On January 11, 1957 the Soviet Government passed the resolution about the foundation of special military object with secret name “Angara”. This secret object had to be situated in Plesetsk District, Arhangelsk Oblast. It was named after the town of Plesetsk. The first Soviet Combat formation of intercontinental ballistic missiles R-7 of General designer Koroljev had to be located in that place, in thick northern taiga to the south of Arhangelsk. July 15, 1957, was the official birthday of the proving ground. That day Colonel Gregorjev assumed his post as the missile unit commander. By July 15, 1961, four missile complexes for ballistic missile R-7 were on combat patrol.

March 17, 1966, was the space birthday of Plesetsk. That day was the first missile launching of the rocket booster Vostok with space vehicle Cosmos 112. Since that time the rocket base Angara has become cosmodrome Plesetsk. Construction started in 1957 and it was declared operational for R-7 rockets in December 1959. The urban-type settlement of Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast had a railway station, essential for the transport of missile components. A new town for the support of the facility was named Mirny, Russian for "peaceful". By 1997, more than 1,500 launches to space had been made from the site, more than for any other launch facility, although the usage has declined significantly since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Nice cover from Belarus. Thank you Natasha !!!

From http://www.belpost/. by

On January 25, 2010 the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus issued a souvenir sheet “XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver”.

Historical reference: The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held on February 12-28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Belarus sportsmen participated in the following events: ice hockey, biathlon, freestyle skiing, cross country skiing, Alpine skiing, Nordic combined, speed skating.

Nice postcard from Russia.

Postcard "Dog Laika". Artist E. Gundobin 1958. On November 3d, 1957 the first space traveler dog Laika made flight on the onboard of the second artificial Earth satellite. The posctard came with nice stamps too.

The Russian Post has issued a stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the space trip of famous Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka.

From Wikipedia:Belka (Белка, literally, "squirrel") and Strelka (Стрелка, "Arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Sputnik 5) on August 19, 1960 before safely returning to Earth.

They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and a number of plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.

Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named Pushok who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never made it into space. One of the pups was named Pushinka (Пушинка, "Fluffy") and was presented to President John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.

On the 25 of January the Russian Post issued a stamp to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mstislav Keldysh.

The stamp features a portrait of the scientist, the first artificial Earth satellite and Keldysh's formula (on the completeness of the eigenfunction).

Mstislav Keldysh was a Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics and mechanics. He was one of the key figures behind Soviet space program. Among scientific circles of USSR Keldysh was known with epithet "the Chief Theoretician".

The crater Keldysh on the Moon, and a research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh are named after him. A minor planet, 2186 Keldysh discovered in 1973 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh, is also named in his honor.

Nice cover from Holland. Thank you NIico!

From Wikipedia:

The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states. Headquartered in Paris, ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €3.6 billion in 2009.

ESA's space flight program includes human spaceflight, mainly through the participation in the International Space Station program, the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon, Earth observation, science, telecommunication as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana, and designing launch vehicles. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle.

Sigmund Jähn. Thank you Lily !!

From Wikipedia:

Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn (born 13 February 1937) is a German pilot who became the first German to fly in space as part of the Soviet Union's Intercosmos program

In 1976, Jähn was selected with his backup Eberhard Köllner for the Intercosmos program. He trained in Star City near Moscow for the next two years, and flew on board Soyuz 31 (launched 26 August 1978) to the Soviet space station Salyut 6, and returned on Soyuz 29, landing on 3 September 1978. He spent 7 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes in space.

During and after the flight, he and the socialist authorities of the GDR pronounced him "the first German cosmonaut", which was remarkable, as in those days the East German state normally stressed that their people were "GDR citizens", to distinguish themselves from West Germany.

Nice cover from Switzerland. Thank you Verena !

From Wikipedia:
113390 Helvetia is an asteroid. It was discovered by Markus Griesser on September 29, 2002. Its provisional name was 2002 SU₁₉. It bears the Latin name for Switzerland, where the asteroid was discovered; Helvetia is also an allegorical figure, symbol for the nation. It has an absolute magnitude of 15.4 and an orbital period of 1276.48 days.