Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

SUIT UP

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, we take a look at the extraordinary outfits that got us there.

July 20, 1969 was a landmark in our exploration of the final frontier. Putting Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon needed the design and construction of rockets and spacecraft, of course, but it would have been impossible to make one small step or one giant leap without the proper ensemble. It takes a very complex combination of technologies to allow a human to survive in the cold vacuum of outer space.

However, while they are made for an extreme environment, spacesuits are not designed to survive in the long term.

“They are fragile,” says Amanda Young, whose new book, Spacesuits: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Collection (powerHouse Books, $35), presents images by Mark Avino of many of the suits at the D.C. museum, along with historical photographs from the years leading up to and after the lunar missions.

“The rubber for the pressure bladder [the balloon-like layer that regulates a suit’s internal pressure] has a definite life span—they were made about six months prior to launch. And a spacesuit is made out of a lot of different materials. When they were first constructed, nobody thought about how these materials might react to one another over time. If you put copper with rubber, it’s going to deteriorate twice as fast, for example.”

The caretakers’ work is never done—and neither is that of the suits’ designers. From the suits of the 1930s to the shuttle suits of today, their work has been instrumental in the development of useful materials and technologies. For instance, the space program—while it didn’t invent the stuff—was an early proponent of Velcro, which allowed for an astronaut’s gloved hands to secure the flaps that cover the zippers on the suits.

But, of course, they haven’t stopped there.

“They’re working on a new suit system to go back to the moon,” Young says. “It’s not going to be like the Apollo or shuttle suits.”

Who knows what they’ll think of next—but while we look forward to the next mission, it’s a good idea see what great leaps were already taken. — Sam Polcer

APRIL 12 1961

Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the USSR, is the first human in space.

FEBRUARY 20 1962

John Glenn is the first American to orbit the Earth. He goes around the Earth three times on a five-hour flight.

JUNE 16 1963

Valentina Tereshkova, from the USSR, is the first woman in space.

MAY 5 1961

Alan Shepard is the first American in space. He doesn’t achieve orbit, but rises to a height of 116 miles.

Pictured: Mercury Phase II suit worn by Alan Shepard on the Freedom 7 mission

MARCH 18 1965

Alexei Leonov, a Soviet cosmonaut, is the first person to step outside of his craft while in outer space. He spends 12 minutes there.

MARCH 23 1965

Virgil “Gus” Grissom is the first person to make a second trip into space. His first trip was in 1961 aboard the second suborbital Mercury mission.

JULY 20 1969

Neil Armstrong is the first human on the moon. He and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin spend 22 hours there.

Pictured: A7-L suit worn by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission

JULY 18 1975

A U.S. Apollo spacecraft docks with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft while in orbit. It is the first international cooperative space flight.

JUNE 18 1983

Sally Ride is America’s first woman in space. At the time, she is also the youngest American to reach space.

AUGUST 30 1983

Guion “Guy” Bluford, Jr., becomes the first African- American in space.

SEPTEMBER 12 1992

Mae Jemison becomes the first African-American woman in space.

APRIL 28 2001

Dennis Tito, an American businessman, becomes the first tourist in space. His offer of $20 million was rejected by the U.S., but welcomed by the Russian space program.

JUNE 3 1965