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Sale 114
Lot 685
First type of Order of Lenin for the Legendary USSR achievement in Space Exploration race. Order of Lenin. Type 1. Award # 598. SILVER. Type 1 "Traktor". Screwback. Comes with original unique silver screwback nut with brass center. Awarded to Moiseev Ivan Georgievich, work brigade team leader of Factory #39, who personally conducted the most complicated works on building the Stratostat gondola "CCCP-1". Decree of November 14, 1933. Comes with Certificate of Authenticity from A. Filer (8.5 out of 10 condition rating). Extremely Rare and among the finest known. On 27 May 1931, over the course of seventeen hours, Piccard and his assistant, Charles Kipfer, achieved a turning point in world history. Their stratospheric balloon, the FNRS (initials for the Belgian National Foundation for Scientific Research), made a relatively short trip from Augsburg, Germany, to the Gurgl glacier at the Austrian Tyrol. But they were also the first to reach previously unknown heights: 51,775 feet. After Piccard’s historic achievement, Russian and American stratostats became quickly engaged in an international "race to the stratosphere," one that mildly prefigured their later "race to space." Publicists in both countries fashioned the competition as a friendly but heated rivalry, exchanging boasts that "the word ‘impossible’ does not exist in the Soviet dictionary" or that America’s stratostat was "an exclamation mark 300 feet tall, punctuating the most awesome of all man’s attempts to solve the riddles of the stratosphere." Both countries openly exploited the balloon ascents for either propaganda or public relations, though at first they were racing more against Piccard than against each other. The USSR opened the race on 30 September 1933 with the launch of the Stratostat SSSR, built by the Soviet Air Force, bigger than Piccard’s FNRS by some 380,000 cubic feet in volume and 17 more feet in diameter. The gondola improved on Piccard’s with a unique duralumin shell (three millimeters thick), more internal space, portholes, oxygen tanks (with an improved carbon dioxide cleansing system), and electronic descent controls. It also marked the USSR’s first world aviation record, beating Piccard and reaching an altitude of 60,695 feet, or just over 11 miles, although for political reasons none of the Soviet Stratostat records were recognized by the official body, the International Aeronautical Federation. The achievement inspired a series of forthcoming Stratostat launches to debut Soviet technological prowess on the world stage and reach new records, all with the explicit approval of the Communist Party’s top political bureau… It also inspired a famous scene in the film Circus (1936) in which the pilot shot out of a cannon, an acrobatic performance entitled "Flight into the Stratosphere" (partly inspired by the Italian American Hugo Zacchini’s act at the Leningrad Circus, the "human cannonball"). A candy was named after the Stratostat SSSR’s record-breaking reach, the Stratosfera, a piece of semisweet cubed chocolate with a small rocket on the wrapper, heralding the future of stratospheric flight. The term now entered the popular vocabulary as a metaphor for accomplishment: everyone wanted to achieve success with their own Stratostat and reach their own personal "stratosphere." The crew of G. A. Prokof’ev (a Red Army balloonist), E. K. Birnbaum (a military pilot), and K. D. Godunov (a balloon engineer) became Soviet heroes on the order of Stakhanovites and border guards, conquerors of production and distance. As "stratonauts," they enjoyed the special privilege, with the aerial rescuers of the famous Cheliushkin expedition and with Soviet pilots of the massive ANT-20 airplane, as "victors over the air." The poet Demian Bednyi celebrated the three in verse: By the measure of collective glee, we’ve conquered all distance. Value $125,000 - UP
To the heroes of the stratosphere three, we send our compliments!" Source: https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/race-stratosphere-1933-180956387/ In 1933, USSR issued a set of postal stamps with denominations of 5, 10, and 20 kopeks, celebrating the flight of Stratostat "CCCP-1". It was followed by 1983 issue of another postal stamp of 20 kopeks denomination, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the flight. Condition:Trivial chips in red enamel, heavy patina, immaculate for type, and best we’ve handled in all the years in the business.
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