Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Soviet Cosmonaut Survival Kits

According to The Appendix the Soviet space program was working on cosmonaut survival kits while NASA was developing tasty  space ice cream.

Wikimedia Commons

The NAZ-3 survival kit (above)was designed in 1968 for the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and contained the following:
  • Makarov pistol and ammunition (to scare off "wolves, bears, tigers, etc." on the event of a crash landing.)
  • wrist compass 
  • 18 waterproof matches with striker 
  • machete; fishing kit 
  • strobe light with spare battery 
  • 8 fire starters 
  • folding knife 
  • antenna 
  • 3-pair wool gloves 
  • signal mirror 
  • NAZ-7M type medical kit 
  • penlight 
  • R-855-YM or R-855-A1 radio 
  • two “Priboy 2S”, ПРИБОЙ-2С radio batteries 
  • three wool balaclava hoods
The Soviet TP-82, a combination gun and machete created specifically
for the space program.
Wikimedia Commons
The TP-82 (above) was intended for use in hunting, firing distress beacons, and defense against hostile foreign nationals. The gun also featured a detachable machete for cutting down trees.

Lots more interesting info at The Appendix.

1 comment:

  1. xoxoxoBruce7:30 am

    That makes sense because they didn’t know where the cosmonauts would come down. Even when they knew where they landed, it might take a while to get to them in the forests. The US was confident they could keep track of the astronauts all the way down, and snatch them quickly from the ocean.

    Remember, “all the way down” and “quickly” are relative terms. ;o)

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