WVU Libraries

A space suit used by an astronaut who spent six months at the International Space Station is on exhibit at the Evansdale Library.

Astronaut Edward Tsang Lu flew on three space missions, logged more than 206 days in space, and carried out a six-hour spacewalk to perform construction work on the ISS.

On display is the Soviet Sokol space suit Lu worn while traveling to and from the ISS.

Astronaut Edward T. Lu, Expedition Seven NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer, wearing his Russian Sokol suit, gives a thumbs-up as he waits for a leak check, Soyuz inspection and seat liner check in the Soyuz Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

The suit is on loan from the Heinlein Prize/Trust as a bonus for the Libraries’ purchase of a special edition of the complete works of renowned American science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988). Heinlein, who popularized the concept of “pay it forward” in his 1951 book Between Planets, is included with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke in the cannon of science fiction writers. The popular 1997 film Starship Troopers was based upon one of his novels.