The outfit must be tough enough for long missions, and flexible enough so that astronauts can move flexibly.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
UPDATimes - The clothing that protects the astronauts of the United States space agency (NASA) from the cold and empty outer space conditions was sewed with difficulty, one by one, by a team of talented expert tailors.
Scientist Engineer. Astronaut. This is the career most often associated with space.
But there are other activities that are much older than the history of human space flight, but as important as today's mission: simple sewing skills.
When Jeanne Wilson was seven years old, her mother taught her to sew. At the age of nine, Wilson had designed and made doll clothes.
After 10 years, in 1969, he was one of several tailors at ILC Dover. They sewed space suits for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.
"My sister worked for a company called Playtex, which was then related to ILC Dover," Wilson said. "She makes bras and girdles."
Light and flexible material designed for women's underwear was also ideal for space clothing. Wilson's sister told him about a job opening a space suit for the new Apollo mission astronaut.
"I'm only 19 years old, still very young. But I'm very excited.
Wilson left the job of sewing suitcases. "It's production, so everything is fast paced," he said.
"And then I came to ILC to work on Apollo space clothing and everything was very slow. Every time you sew, the stitches must be checked, they must be checked, because what we do is very important."
This training includes learning how to read blueprints, work with engineers and sew with high precision using newly designed threads and several layers of fine fabric.
"Even though it consists of 21 layers, the thickness is as thin as a hair," Wilson said.
"And you would think that the fabric was not expensive, around Rp. 70-80 thousand per sheet. Not really. The price was almost US $ 3,000. The fabrics were stored in a safe."
The stitched suit was taken to the local hospital in Dover, Delaware.
"They had to do two X-ray irradiation," he said, "to make sure there were no pins or anything left in our clothes. ? "
"And sometimes we have trouble sleeping at night. Just cry and cry, because I know."
Aylene's eye-catching picture, on a sewing machine, surrounded by thick hot glass material held by several people, is on the walls of the Nasa Johnson Space Center
Wilson sewed the chest, arms and legs of the space shirt, as well as the astronaut's name badge. Other tailors (all of them women) specialized in making boots or, like Joanne Thompson, making lots of gloves for training and landing on the Moon.
Astronauts came to Delaware, USA, to try on their clothes, often also signing photos for tailors and praising their work.
"Every astronaut has their own handprints," Thompson said.
"On the palm of the hand there are long pieces that pass through the fingers and attach to the segment and there is a gap in the thumb. We sew around it."
The glove consists of several parts including a winding - the edge of a cloth like an accordion which makes "the wearer can stretch his arms and move them".
Thompson, like Wilson, also learned sewing since he was a child. He left his job at a clothing factory to join ILC Dover and worked there for 38 years.
Now 82 years old, he recalled the ongoing testing needed to ensure that the suit could withstand harsh conditions in space.
"We sew all day long, and know that the results will be destroyed. But we know someone's life will depend on it, so we continue to work."
In 1973, just a year after the Apollo mission ended, the skills of the tailors helped save America's first space station, Skylab.
Shortly after launching, the front micrometeoroid glass protective cover suddenly came out.
The crew could not rise because the temperature inside was very high. A heat shield is needed as soon as possible, and Aylene Baker was recruited from NASA's General Electric contractor to help make it.
Every time sewing, the stitches must be checked, must be checked again.
Aylene's eye-catching picture, on a sewing machine, surrounded by thick hot glass material held by several people, is on the walls of the Nasa Johnson Space Center.
"The piece of material measures 6.7 meters by 7.3 meters," said Aylene's son, Herb Baker, who worked at NASA for 42 years. "We had to make various types of sample stitches, which would be sent to the lab to be tested until they were torn," Thompson said.
"The material is a very thin aluminum layer and uses Mylar, laminated nylon and a thin nylon layer. One side is bright orange, the other is silver. They call it parasol, like an umbrella material. It can be folded and opened with scientific airlock."
Replacement heat protection works. Aylene image that attracts attention on a sewing machine, surrounded by anti-heat material held by several people, is on the walls of Nasa Johnson Space Center.
This is where the two Aylene, who died in 2004, and Herb had worked.
The heat protective cloth continued with the development of the shuttle. Jean Wright joined the NASA United Space Alliance contractor from a clothing store to sew thermal blankets for the space shuttle.
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