Vitaly Sevastyanov's Spacesuit Glove

Spacesuit glove used by the Soviet Cosmonaut and engineer Vitaly Sevastyanov on his Soyuz 18 flight to Soviet space station Salyut 4, May to July 1975.

This glove is a part of a Sokol Spacesuit. Sokol, or Cокоn (Russian for Falcon) are Soviet designed spacesuits made with the intention of keeping astronauts safe whilst inside a spacecraft. Sokol suits have been used since the early Soviet missions in the 60’s, however, these pressure suits were not considered when the Soyuz spacecraft was being developed. Following the Soyuz 11 tragedy, where three crew members were found dead upon re-entry after asphyxiating when their capsule depressurised, astronauts are now required to wear their Sokol suits during launch, docking and re-entry. This glove is from a specific model of Sokol suit - the Sokol-K (Космос - The Russian word for space). This type of suit was used from Soyuz 12 to Soyuz 40. Later models of Sokol suits have been worn by many different astronauts including the Briton in space, Helen Sharman, and the first British European Space Agency astronaut, Tim Peake.

Sevastyanov was the flight engineer on both the Soyuz 9 and the Soyuz 18 missions and spent a total of 80.5 days in space. His first flight in 1970, Soyuz 9, was a crewed flight launched with the purpose of observing the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body as well as the spacecraft's hardware, prior to the launch of the Salyut 1 space station. Sevastyanov and Commander Andrian Nikolayev spent a total of 17 days, 16 hours, 58 minutes and 55 seconds on board Soyuz 9, breaking a five-year-old record which was previously held by Gemini 7.

His second and final flight was in 1975 on Soyuz 18. Sevastyanov and Pyotr Kilmuk (the commander of Soyuz 18) docked with the Salyut 4 space station where they stayed for 61 days, conducting biomedical research which included an exercise programme designed to keep the astronauts strong during their time in space. Besides being an accomplished cosmonaut and flight engineer, Sevastyanov has also worked with ground control, in spacecraft design, and was the president of the Soviet Chess Federation. He won the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ award twice and was the host of a popular television programme in the 80’s called ‘Man, Earth, Universe’.