S

On April 8th, the New York City branch of Bonhams will be hosting a "Space History" auction, and Gizmodo has been given a preview of the some of the historically unique, space age artifacts that will be for sale. From full-body Soviet space suits to a control panel once used on the space station Mir, the range of objects is pretty extraordinary; earlier space history-themed auctions at Bonhams have even included Neil Armstrong's own flight notes taken to the surface of the moon.

Here's just a quick sample of some of the goods for saleimages and descriptions are all courtesy of Bonhams.

S

Control panel, aluminum and steel painted light blue, with plastic push buttons, glass light panels, digital display. [execution] button with metal safety switch cover. 16 x 9 x 7 inches. Mounted to metal display stand.

Provenance: Displayed at the 2000 World's Fair in Hannover, Germany as part of the Russian MIR Toru Control Centre exhibit.

A key piece of hardware from the Mir Space Station. One of three control panels for the TORU docking system on MIR, which consisted of a sensor board, a PU PBS control panel, and this, the PVK Control Panel. Together, these three devices, along with a tv monitor and joysticks, were responsible for the manual docking and undocking of spacecraft attached to the space station. The TORU system was a manually teleoperated rendezvous control system which served as a back-up to the automatic Kurs system. Not only was it used on MIR, but also on Salyut, and the International Space Station (ISS). The system was famously used in the disastrous docking attempt of the Russian unmanned cargo spacecraft Progress M-34, which collided with the MIR space station in 1997. Est $4,000-6,000.

S

Manufactured by NPP Zvedza, ca. 1988. Est $15,000-20,000

S

Go here to read the rest:

Soviet and American Space Suits For Sale at This Other-Worldly Auction