After Space, Saving Suits, Boots and Gloves
The spacesuits that kept U.S. astronauts alive now owe their survival to one woman
- Smithsonian magazine, May 2009, Subscribe
"Jack is the most beautiful. I just adore Jack," says Amanda Young, 62, eyeing a wall of photographs. She is perched on a short stepladder in her workshop at the National Air and Space Museum's Paul E. Garber Facility in Suitland, Maryland. "Gene is gorgeous," she adds. "Mike has knee problems."
Each image is of a different spacesuit. "Jack" is the suit once worn by geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt of Apollo 17; "Gene" is Eugene Cernan's suit; he commanded Apollo 17, which was the Apollo program's sixth and final lunar landing mission. "Mike" was worn by Michael Collins, who piloted the command module of Apollo 11, the mission on which Neil Armstrong took "one small step."
Young spends her days cleaning and preserving spacesuits. Some of the 220 garments under her care were worn for only one mission, after which NASA used them either for training other astronauts or sent them to the Smithsonian Institution. Others are never-worn prototypes.
"Jim," a cream-colored number once worn by Jim Lovell of Gemini 12—America's 16th manned spaceflight—lay on a table below the wall of photographs, and next to it was a rack with boxes containing astronaut gloves and helmets.
Young motioned to some boots. Age had caused them to shrivel and harden. The suits had been built to resist the extreme conditions of space travel "for a short period," Young says, "but it turns out they can resist nothing for a long period of time." When Young took over the collection in 1995, no one knew much about spacesuit preservation, including Young. She had started out as a secretary at the museum in 1985, taking on more and more responsibilities, which included lending spacesuits to other museums. Since becoming the collection's official caretaker, she has reached out to specialists in metals, plastics and rubber. Many of the suits' inner latex liners were crumbling to pieces. But experts helped her determine the optimal environment for the suits—68 degrees Fahrenheit and 35 percent relative humidity—to prevent decay. She also made her own discoveries. As the synthetic materials in the suit deteriorate, they release hydrochloric acid. Young learned that draping the suits in muslin absorbs much of it.
Young led me to a climate-controlled storage room surrounded by dusty aircraft and engines on the hangar's main floor. Inside, some 150 stuffed spacesuits (another 70 are on display at various museums) lay on their backs, five to a cart. Young rolled out "Neil," which wore a faded American flag stitched to its shoulder and a patch that read "ARMSTRONG"—the first suit to walk on the moon.
In an "ABC Evening News" piece that aired in 2002, Young was seen turning off the vault's lights and saying, "Goodnight, boys!" She was embarrassed by the sound bite but is not ashamed of her devotion to the suits. "My interest is in caring for these objects," says Young. "She's contributed quite a bit," says Bill Ayrey of ILC Dover, maker of the Apollo spacesuits, "because she's preserved these suits for the next generations to see and understand." Young wrote a book about the garments, Spacesuits, which comes out in June.
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Comments (6)
I was a space suit technician at KSC during the apollo program. I did many suit-ups for the numerous suited training exercises as well as launch suit-ups on 10, 13 and 17. However, most of my time was spent maintaining the suits: often, with Jim Rutherford (above post) checking my work. Jim, if you see this find me. Several of us suit types are still around.
Posted by Dave Halfhill on April 12,2012 | 11:16 PM
I worked at the Dover facility then on to JSC then to the cape for Apollo 8 through skylab. After each mission I downgraded most of the flight suits and shipped them to the Smithsonian. They were pretty dirty starting with Apollo 14.
It sadens me to hear of the condition of the suits. The convolutes actually go through a process called reversion over time. Not much you can do about it.
I I was an ILC Quality and Reliability Technician and did many of the final inspections prior to launch and have many fond memories from that time.
I am now doing volunteer work at the Challenger Space Center in Peoria AZ.
I give talks about the suits and crew training and look forward to Youngs book. I understand Bill is writing a book on the history of ILC and the suits. Please contact me if there is anything I can do to help.
Posted by Jim Rutherford on July 2,2010 | 02:33 PM
Ms. Seley,
I read your comment with great interest. My uncle Devereau, a country boy from Denton, Md, worked at ILC in Dover while I was still a boy in the 60's. He spoke with great pride about meeting each astronaut starting with the first human space launch. He was responsible for making plaster foot casts and measuring the astronauts to make the laytex suits. He spoke with such about how he'd get to spend time with each astronaut who in turn would send him momentos like space coins and personal thank you letters they signed right up till his death in the mid seventies. Thanks for the memories.
Posted by Jack on May 28,2010 | 07:34 PM
I was fortunate to be part of a SITES team who visited Ms. Young at the Air and Space Garber Center just before she retired. See my blog post:
http://www.shows2go.si.edu/exhibitions/2009/06/suited-for-space-a-chat-with-the-curator.html
Posted by Ann Carper on December 13,2009 | 05:27 PM
My grandfather worked for ILC in Dover and actually made the gloves for the Apollo program in the 60's. He personally met most of the astronauts and took molds of their hands to ensure the gloves were custom fit! I'm so proud of my grandfather (who had an 8th grade education and was an immigrant from Italy) and thankful that Ms. Young takes great care of these suits. I always get a tear in my eye when I visit the Air & Space Museum and see something my grandfather had a "hands-on" part of!
Posted by Nancy Seley on October 6,2009 | 10:17 AM
I was lucky enough to receie a spacesuit from the small mill in Slater, SC which made one of the 21 layers in the suit for the July 1969 lunar flight. We will be displaying it at our festival "Mill to Moon" on July 18, 2009 in Slater Hall, Slater, SC.
Joyce Ford
Posted by Joyce Ford on June 30,2009 | 04:13 PM