Kazakhstan 2004
Luna 3
Luna 3 photographing the far side of the Moon for the first time. At right is an illustration of the probe’s looping path around the Moon and back past the Earth.
This stamp is one of a pair issued in 2004 by the former Soviet state of Kazakhstan to commemorate Cosmonautics Day; the other stamp depicts the US probe Mariner 10 to Mercury. Cosmonautics Day is celebrated by Russia and its friends every April 12, the date of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight.
Stanley Gibbons catalogue number:
433