dsc02352.jpg

The sign accompanying the suit. It reads

Sokol KV-2 Spacesuit

In 1971, three Soviet cosmonauts lost their lives when the Soyuz 11 spacecraft suffered depressurization in space. They were not wearing space suits. After that accident, the Soviets began work on a new type of suit that could be worn for launch and landing, that could protect the cosmonauts from the vacuum of space in an emergency. (It was not designed for "spacewalks.") This new suit, the Sokol K, was first used on the mission of Soyuz 12 in September, 1973, and variants have been used for Soviet/Russion space missions ever since.

The suit on display is a Sokol KV-2, developed for later versions of Soyuz TM spacecraft. It was used in training by Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, for the Soyuz TM-30 mission, which flew to the Mir space station on April 4, 2000. On June 16, 2000, after 72 days in space, Commander Kaleri and his pilot, Sergey Zalyotin, left the Mir. They were the last humans to call the Mir home.

The suit was acquired in January 2002, from a dealer in Austria. Its acquisition was made possible by a generous gift from the Michigan International Speedway.