This Sandbox Isn't For Kids, It's For Spacesuit Research
People that get to do the same thing for a living as they did when they were a child are lucky. The ones that get to do it while wearing a space suit, too? They just make me jealous.
Never Leave your Spaceship Without Boots, Mitts, and a Hat
All the best-dressed explorers wore glittery spacesuits more suitable to the Silver Surfer than somber NASA astronauts in the early days of the Space Age. These are the helmets, gloves, and boots for the Mercury Seven astronauts.
This Crazy Patchwork of Restraints Ultimately Led to Modern Pressurized Spacesuits
1962: This isn’t a demented experiment from some wacky fictional mad scientist. Instead, it’s actual serious research by NASA that led to pressurized spacesuits.
Why NASA Put This Spacesuit Through a CT ScannerÂ
Last year, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned in his own fluids during a harrowing spacewalk-gone-wrong. Now, NASA has teamed with the Houston Methodist Hospital's research institute to make sure that such a thing never happens again—using a CT scanner.
Future Astronauts Might Walk, Not Hop, On The Moon
Why do astronauts hop on the moon? After carefully watching hapless volunteers use a treadmill under variable gravity, researchers think it had more to do with the stiffness of spacesuits than anything else.
Latest Fashion for the Stylish Astronaut
After popular vote, NASA has a new futuristic skin for their Z-2 space suit design. Incorporating electroluminescent wire and exposed rotating bearings, this is the technology-themed design. The design will be used for terrestrial testing, so get ready for some awesome photo-shoots.
This Week in Space
Ready to lose time to all the space-related stories we didn't cover this week?
The Continuing Adventures of Major Matt Mason
Major Matt Mason was a Mattel toy inspired by the incredibly cartoonish space suit designed by Allyn B. "Happ" Hazard. Major Mason was the must-have toy for space-loving geeks of a certain age, and he's come out of storage for a photo shoot.
The Marshmallow Moon-Suit
Allyn B. "Happ" Hazard just looks so dang happy in his space suit, that it seems a shame JPL claims no responsibility for it. NASA never developed his design, but toy manufacturer Mattel knew it was too cute for words.
Would you like to jump from low Earth orbit using this awesome suit?
Fearless Felix Baumgartner's jump was truly amazing but, at about 127,000 feet, it wasn't from orbit—not even low Earth orbit. Maybe one day someone will beat his record with this re-entry emergency suit. Can you imagine being inside as you plunge into Earth's atmosphere and everything turns into fire?
Vote on the Z-2 Spacesuit Prototype design
NASA is collecting votes on the aesthetics of the next edition of the Z-series spacesuit prototypes. With a lot of gortex and electroluminescent wire, the options come straight out of a scifi set.
The Lonely Astronaut Photoshoot
If I had a space suit, I'd wear it everywhere. Commuting on the bus, out to bars, hiking in the mountains, lecturing my students. I don't even care that it's heavy and difficult to move around in; I've been uncomfortable for fashion before. Photographer Ken Hermann is on the same wavelength, with the added insight…
Here's a little-known fact: You know the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on the first moonwalk? Turns out that suit was made by a bra manufacturer in Dover, Deleware. As Andrew Chaikin explains at Smithsonian, the seamstresses who hand-stitched NASA's spacesuits were used to devoting their needlework to an entirely…
This is what we would all do if we got to wear a real NASA spacesuit
BBC's Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame recently got to step inside a NASA's Z1 spacesuit prototype that was pressurized to simulate what wearing the spacesuit would be like on Mars. Because Mars atmosphere is so thin, the suit needs to be pumped up inside to hold his body together. No matter to Hammond though. He did…
Vintage NASA spacesuit photos are delightfully trippy
Seriously, is this what space psychosis looks like?
Space Suit X-Ray is Coil-Tastic
One in a series of X-Rays currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's "Suited for Space" exhibit, this unusual view gives the observer a peek inside an experimental space suit designed in the late sixties.
An in-depth tour of the suit astronauts use to make repairs in space
If you've ever watched footage of a spacewalk, you've seen an astronaut outfitted in an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), the spacesuit specially designed for astronauts working outside of spacecraft orbiting Earth at 17,220 miles per hour.
How to Put on a Space Suit
If you think wriggling into your cycling lycra or trussing yourself up in a tux is tricky, think again. Donning an astronaut's space suit is no mean feat—as this video shows.
A Movie About the Origins of the World's Most Famous Spacesuit
It's been eight long years since Apollo 13. We need our historically accurate space movie fix! Thank goodness Warner Bros. is cooking up a new feature, Spacesuit, based entirely on the creation of the Apollo spacesuits. OK, we're listening.
Wish I Was Rich As The Stars
I could spent an extremely large amount money at the upcoming Space History Sale at the Bonhams. I especially love this lot of space suit development photographs.
