Sokol spacesuit. This Soviet spacesuit is used by cosmonauts who fly on missions in the Soyuz spacecraft. The name is the Russian for falcon. It is worn during launch and re-entry to protect the cosmonaut if the spaceship has partially depressurized. It would be useless in cases of complete loss of pressure. The spacesuit is here being worn by the Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers (born 1958). Kuipers took part in the Soyuz TMA-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), launching on 19 April 2004. He returned to Earth 11 days later on 30 April 2004, aboard Soyuz TMA-3.