Vladimir Beilin (Russian, 20th C.) "USSR/US Cosmonauts/Astronauts Exploring" Original Watercolor painting. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood First Day Combination Cover for the Russia Space Exploration block of four stamps issued May 29, 1992. Even when vast political differences separated the United States and Soviet Union, scientists from both nations' space programs hoped for mutual cooperation. Their first great success was the precedent-setting Soyuz-Apollo joint mission in 1975, which saw astronauts and cosmonauts exchange handshakes and gifts -- and even share a convivial meal of borscht -- in their docked spaceships. But during the next 16 years, marked by events in Afghanistan and the Middle East, that first small tear in the iron curtain seemed to have been sewn closed forever. Today, however, as a result of momentous changes in the former USSR, hopes for mutual exploration of space have been reborn in a planned joint American and Russian mission to Mars. The art shown here depicts that hope-for 21st C. mission, showing astronaut and cosmonaut reaching toward each other in friendship .. against the ruddy backdrop of a planet named for the ancient Roman god of war. Image Size: 14 x 12 in. Overall Size: 17.75 x 14 in. Unframed. (B13802)