# kf101 A History of Soyuz TMA-3/ISS onboard handstam

An interesting and simple story of Soyuz TMA-3/ISS flight handstamp started almost a month before mission on the backyard of Alexander Kaleri`s house in Moscow.On Sunday, between training period in Star City I met Alexander (Sasha) in his city townhouse.His wife Svetlana just arranged delivery of two Goose birds from the village outside Moscow, to have them as pets. And when I came to Sasha`s house it was fun to see two birds walking outside on the backyard.Birds perfectly accepted Sasha`s little son and wife Svetlana, but were affraid of us.And male bird made a lot of noise by `protecting his family`. Same day I`ve proposed to Sasha to create a design for Soyuz TMA-3/ISS flight onboard handstamp to carry on orbit in addition to ISS handstamps already existed on board of station. Because Gooses were in the focus entire day, I`ve decided to depict them on pencil scetch-drawing of design.Other elements of design were:Launching Soyuz rocket, Globe, Stars, ISS on orbit and text BOARD SOYUZ TMA-3 (in Russian), BOARD SOYUZ TMA-3,ISS (in English) and RUSSIA-USA-SPAIN (flown by Alexander Kaleri Soyuz TMA-3 had with him on board ISS-8 American astronaut Foale and ESA Spanish astronaut Duque. Two days later from this drawing a master made a handstamp, which A.Kaleri carried in this flight. This handstamp used by Alexander to cancel few photos/cards and Russian and British flags.Details of stamp can be noticed on second image from flown Gagarin-Vostok card.