Spacesuits

Space Suit Evolution From Custom Tailored To Off-The-Rack
Apollo Space Suits Were Custom Tailored The Apollo space suit was basically a one-piece suit. Each suit was made to fit (custom tailored) each astronaut. Each Apollo mission required fifteen (15) suits to support the mission. The main, or prime, three-man crew each had three suits: I for flight; 1 for training; and 1 as a flight back-upin case something happened to their flight suit, thus a total of 9 suits for the prime crew. The back-up three-man crew each had two suits: I for flight and I for training. The astronaut corps at that time included between 25 and 27 astronauts. Shuttle Space Suits Are "Off-The-Rack" The Shuttle astronaut corps includes about 120 men and women. The Shuttle space suit, to accommodate the large numberof astronauts with widely varying body sizes, was designed to be made up of many interchangeable parts. These parts (upper and lower torso's, arms, etc.) are fabricated at ILC in different sizes, inspected/tested, then shipped to Johnson Space Center (JSC) where they are inventoried for the astronaut corps. ILC Dover has a staff of about 15 people who work on-site at JSC. This staff is primarilyresponsible for the control, use, and maintenance of the suit components produced in Frederica after they arrive at JSC. The staff also develops and executes the crew training schedules. This involves everything from taking measurements and conducting fitchecks to de-stow and post-flight inspection/test of the space suit. Measuring Up For Shuttle At JSC, the body measurements of each Shuttleastronaut are taken and recorded, then the measurements are plotted against the size ranges available for each space suit component. The suit components are then assembled and the astronaut is "fitchecked." Once the astronaut is satisfied with the fit, then a training suit is assembled using duplicate sized components. The astronaut will use this assembly for many mining events. A flight suit is thenassembled using the same size components and the astronaut will "checkout" this suit during chamber testing and other test events. Training suits are usually assembled nine months prior to flight and flight suits are usually assembled four months prior to flight. Pack Your Bags! Just before a Shuttle mission, the suits designated for flight are tested, cleaned, and packed at JSC. Then they areflown to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and stowed on the orbiter. After each flight the suits are returned to JSC for post-flight processing and reuse.

ILC Dover, Inc.
1994

ILC Dover, Inc.
1994

Questions & Answers About Space Suits
1. I would like to know if you are making old stuff into new stuff? No. Materials used in making the space suits are purchased from other manufacturers and webegin building from scratch. The Apollo suits that were on the moon were designed for a special purpose and were tailored for each astronaut. The new suits used on the Shuttle are not tailored and are designed for special features that were not required for the Apollo suit. 2. When did you start making astronaut suits? ILC started designing suits in 1961; started making test and prototype suits in1964; and started delivering suits for use by the Apollo astronauts in 1966. 3. How thick is the space suit? Approximately 3/16" thick, 11 layers of materials. 4. Do you have astronaut suits there? How many do you have? How many sizes do you make? Do you make space suits by the dozen, one at a time, or what? ILC no longer builds custom-made suits for each astronaut. We now build separablecomponents (arms, legs, boots, etc.) that attach together which provides many sizes. After a suit has completed its mission, it is disassembled. Some of its parts are then mated with other parts to build another suit of a different size. Once these component parts have been made, they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center near Houston, Texas. We do have a certification suit here, which is manned...