Step Inside the Russian Spacesuit Factory

The town of Tomilino, some 16 miles southeast of Moscow, is rather unassuming about its role in the history of space exploration. A snack kiosk and a shaky sign for a bus stop are about all there is to greet a visitor getting off the commuter train. There is no statue of the world's first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, in his bright-orange spacesuit waving to earthlings after his successful landing. But that's a shame, because Tomilino is the home of the world's few workshops where space travelers can get their outfits.

Established in October 1952, top-secret Factory No. 918 developed all Russian spacesuits along with numerous life-support and safety systems, including catapult chairs for military pilots, various protective gear, and even space-based toilets and showers. With the work no longer classified, the company, renamed Zvezda (Star), carries on its unique and often dangerous experimental work for aviation and space here: Minutes after I passed through security into Zvezda's campus, a loud bang shook the air. "A catapult just went off," my guide said.

Most of the out-of-this-world artifacts developed at Zvezda over its six-decade history are now displayed inside the company's recently renovated demo hall. Resembling an airlock of some interplanetary cruiser, this long gallery is lined with glass capsules that contain original spacesuits worn by pioneers of space exploration during their actual missions.

Anatoly Zak is the publisher of RussianSpaceWeb.com and the author of Russia in Space, the Past Explained, the Future Explored, just published by Apogee Prime.

The USSR started its foray into space at the beginning of the 1950s by launching dogs on ballistic missiles into arc-shaped trajectories that touched the edge of space. For these flights, Factory No. 918 designed rocket-powered sleds and pressure suits complete with transparent helmets. These enabled a pair of dogs to eject and land safely under a parachute after their rocket had exhausted its fuel and began falling back to Earth. Sadly, some dogs did perish due to equipment failures, including the famous Laika, whose cabin (far right) was not designed to return from the first and only one-way mission into orbit launched by the USSR in November 1957.

During the world's first orbital spaceflight, on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was riding the Vostok spacecraft in the V3A ejection seat and wore the SK-1 safety suit now both prominently displayed in the demo hall. However, after Gagarin's SK-1 suit was returned to its creators shortly after Vostok's landing, they had little appreciation for its historic value, seeing it only as another iteration in their unending race to improve flight gear. As a result, the priceless artifact ended up with two holes cut in the chest area, made by engineers pondering upgrades.

According to Zvezda folklore, the flight jacket worn by the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, during her difficult three-day mission 50 years ago did not survive a botched post-landing attempt by the company's technicians to machine wash it. However, its original Dove of Peace insignia was reportedly saved and sewn onto this similar garment now on display.

Aleksei Leonov was wearing the Berkut spacesuit during the world's first spacewalk, taken from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft in March 1965. A 20-kilogram Berkut sported the first Soviet backpack life-support system, designated KP-55. The 21.5-kilogram unit could sustain a cosmonaut for 30 to 45 minutes during a spacewalk or in an emergency onboard the spacecraft.

During the 1960s, engineers at Factory No. 918 endeavored to resolve the out-of-this-world problem of cosmonauts maneuvering outside their spacecraft. The result was a Unit for Cosmonaut Transfer and Maneuvering, UMPK. This space bike was to be propelled by 84 solid-propellent motors and 14 cold-gas thrusters. It was to be tested during Voskhod-5 or Voskhod-6 missions. But both were cancelled, leaving the UMPK unit just a museum artifact.

The USSR developed a much more advanced personal maneuvering unit, called 21KS, during the 1980s. It was successfully tested onboard the Mir space station in February 1990, when a pair of cosmonauts took turns to fly 33 to 45 meters (more than 100 feet) from their orbital home. Unlike American astronauts who pioneered the use of a similar contraption onboard the space shuttle six years earlier, the Soviet cosmonauts remained tethered to the station.

The development of the Buran, the Soviet equivalent of the space shuttle, posed new challenges for spacesuit designers. During early test launches of the winged spacecraft, Buran's pilots would sit in K-36RB ejection seats, ready to bail out in the event of a catastrophic failure up to an altitude of 40 kilometers. To protect the pilot from the enormous heat generated during a supersonic free-fall from the stratosphere, the Strizh spacesuit, seen here, had a leather-covered external layer. The Strizh could also protect pilots in case Buran's cabin was breached in orbit, giving the crew 12 to 24 hours to return their space plane back to Earth. During its development, one of the Strizh suits (second from the left) was placed in an unmanned Soyuz rocket and ejected in midflight in order to prove its design. However, the Buran spacecraft flew only one unmanned mission before the program stalled at the end of the Cold War.

During a highly publicized MARS-500 experiment in 2011, a group of volunteers was locked up for a year and a half in a life-size mockup of a Mars-bound spacecraft. Although the group never truly left Earth, the project gave Russian engineers their first opportunity to practice building a spacesuit for walks on the surface of the Red Planet (left).

They're much less glamorous but no less necessary than spacesuits. Space toilets of several generations have been built here. The museum display represents the ASU-8A device, whose key components were first developed for the Buran orbiter. Later, a modified version provided conveniences for the crew of the Mir space station. Although it was designed for a spacecraft with a crew of three to six, ASU-8A required a periodic replacement of waste containers (right), which would be loaded into departing cargo ships to burn up in the atmosphere along with other trash.

Engineers at Zvezda attempted to bring Soviet "space hotels" to a five-star level with the development of an orbital shower. It was first employed onboard the Salyut-6 space station, launched in 1977. However, veterans of the project admit that the hassle of using the water-hungry device rendered it impractical.

Russia's spacefaring past and future meet inside Zvezda's vast centrifuge room. Currently undergoing renovations for the future development work, the facility was once a backdrop for the iconic footage of Yuri Gagarin enduring a dizzying centrifuge spin.

The latest incarnation of the Orlan spacesuit undergoes final checks before its delivery to the International Space Station, where it would be used for multiple ventures onto the exterior of the orbiting outpost staged from the Russian segment of the ISS.

Spacesuits designed for spacewalks can be tested inside a 50-cubic-meter KS-5411 vacuum chamber that mimics conditions in space. The facility was once used to prepare a welding experiment, which was later repeated onboard the Salyut-7 space station.

All cosmonauts (and now astronauts) preparing to fly on board Soyuz spacecraft undergo a risky test inside the vacuum chamber at Zvezda. The procedure aims to familiarize Soyuz crew members with "space-grade" vacuum and demonstrate protective capabilities of their Sokol rescue suits. Ironically, Soyuz crews will never experience vacuum conditions during a real flight unless their spacecraft is hit with a catastrophic failure leading to a loss of pressure in the cabin. When this photo was taken, a European astronaut scheduled to fly to the ISS was undergoing the test inside the chamber. A medical emergency team was on standby in the same room.

Relying on 60 years of experience in designing cosmonaut chairs for Russia's spacecraft, engineers at Zvezda are currently working on a new seating arrangement for the next-generation spacecraft. They used a cutting-edge 3D printing technology to produce this full-scale prototype of the chair, dubbed Cheget after a mountain in the Caucasus range. Still, the chair could go through many incarnations before the final design emerges.