Yastreb

Yastreb (Ястреб, = "hawk") is a Russian space suit that was specially developed for early Soyuz space vehicle missions and for the planned Soviet Moonshot. This model of space suit allowed the cosmonaut to accomplish EVA from the orbital module of Soyuz.

Design and development of the suit took place in 1966 by the Zvezda Company with input from Alexei Leonov. The Berkut suit that Leonov had used on the Voskhod 2 space walk had ballooned at the joints making movement very difficult. The Yastreb design was much more rigid using a system of pulleys and lines to regulate movement. The backpack containing life support was mounted in a metal box that could be attached to the chest or to the leg to ease access through the small Soyuz hatch. The suit was to be worn only in the Orbital Module of the Soyuz spacecraft and needed two people to put it on. The suit's capacity was limited, so that for the planned Soviet Moon landing the movements of the cosmonauts would be very restricted.

The Yastreb suit was only used once in the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 docking and crew exchange. During the mission both cosmonauts experienced problems with the suit.