Rare flown Sokol GP-7S glove (Left hand), serial number ГП-7С-30270118, with exceptional photographic provenance.
This glove was flown to and from the ISS on Soyuz TMA-09 / ISS-14. Soyuz TMA-9 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 Sep 2006 and returned to earth on 21 April 2007, for a total mission time of 215 days, 8 hours, 22 minutes. When Soyuz TMA-9 landed, its 215 day mission set a record for the longest flight ever by a Soyuz spacecraft (and one that exceeded the 210-day limit for Soyuz TMA spacecraft).
This left-hand "backup" Sokol glove comes from the collection of Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin's. Tyurin was Commander on Soyuz TMA-09 and Flight Engineer on ISS-14. It is a "new style" GP-7S glove (left hand), which replaced the earlier GP-7A glove in late 2004. Unlike the earlier gloves, the new model does not feature blue Cyrillic initials on the front. Instead, a set of initials would have been affixed to the strap on the back of the main pair of gloves. The backup pair was intended for emergency use and does not bear the crewmember's initials.
The glove bears two faded ISS on-board handstamps (octagonal and circular) on the back of the wrist. It is accompanied by photos of the glove floating in the Russian segment of the ISS with the serial number fully visible.
Of note, in the onboard photos of the glove, a copy of a flight data file for "Экспедиция Посешения 12 /Taxi Mission 12" is attached to a wall to the left of the gloves. EP-12, or "Visiting Mission 12" was the designation given to the 12th "tourist mission" to the ISS, which carried Charles Simony to the ISS onboard Soyuz TMA-10 / ISS-15. Soyuz TMA-10 docked with the ISS on 9 April 2007, which dates the onboard photo to a 13 day period between the arrival of Soyuz TMA-10 / ISS-15 (9 April 2007) and the departure of Soyuz-TMA-9 / ISS-14 (21 April 2007).
The gloves were returned to earth onboard Soyuz TMA-9, and landed with the crew southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
A rare example of a flown Sokol glove with impeccable photographic provenance showing the glove floating in zero-g in the Russian segment of the ISS!
