This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/10/2001.
This is an actual experimental Russian Sokol TKS pressure spacesuit designed for the top-secret Almaz space station project in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, and it is a sign of those tense Cold War times. While the Salyut and Solyuz space stations became public knowledge as a scientific facility, and the precursors to today's MIR space station (as well as America's Skylab project), Almaz was carried out under a veil of secrecy, designed for military purposes as part of the Russian government's defense plans. People thought the space station platform could be used for military surveillance (using ultra-high powered telescopic lenses) and as a staging area for weapons, including nucelar ones. In a mission this confidential and sensitive, only the most experienced cosmonauts were allowed into the program, in which 3 manned orbital stations were developed from 1973 to 1977, known publicly as Salyut space stations 2, 3 and 5. By the mid to late 1980s, the Iron Curtain was eroding, and the project switched to unmanned missions which continue today to position earth-observing radar satellites. It is not certain whether this 2-piece suit from 1977, designed by space engineer S. Sharbakov, was used for trials. The suit is made of white nylon canvas with royal blue trim. It includes an attached pressurized hood with a hinged plastic visor, secured to a blue anodized aluminum clavicle flange, trussed sleeves with adjustable articulating cables, and detached pressure gloves. There are electrical, air and coolant lines with attached cables and hoses, pressure equalization valves, support sling wrapping, webbed belts, metal clips, metrically calibrated webbed straps attached to metal rings on side seams and along the crotch, pleated knees, 2 zippers and 2 utility pockets on each leg, boots of the same material laced on at the knees, a rubberized cloth lining and a waist zipper so cosmonauts could put the bottom half on first and pull on the top half. This extraordinarily rare spacesuit is an exhilarating and sobering piece of history and a technological masterpiece.