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January 7th, 2021
Lunar Outfitters – Making the Apollo Space Suit by Bill Ayrey; University of Florida Press; 422 pages; October 6, 2020; Hardcover; $35.00.
This is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at suiting up and what was required to harness America’s technological cleverness in planting humans on the Moon via the Apollo program.
The story is told by Bill Ayrey, a testing lab manager for the textile manufacturer International Latex Corporation (ILC) Industries (now ILC Dover, LP) that fabricated, from head to toe, Apollo program space suits. Providing the “wear-with-all” for Apollo didn’t come easy for the company, the author explains.
When the call went out for new suit concepts in 1965, ILC faced six weeks to come up with a drastically different design, winning the space suit contract. Ayrey draws on original files and photographs to tell the dramatic story of the company’s role in the Apollo Moon landing effort.
Divided into three substantial parts, the book details the “school of hard knocks,” “the turbulent years” from 1962-1965, and reviews the Model A-7L pressure suit worn by the Apollo 11 astronauts, as well as the Model A-7LB that replaced it in 1971. The last part of the book focuses on post-lunar missions, Skylab, the U.S./Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Program, and other development suits.
The book is a wonderland of detail. Yes, from fecal and urine containment system, in-suit drink bag to thermal micrometeoroid protection, the liquid cooling suit design and down to the lunar boots and gloves required.
Ayrey dedicates the book to all the employees of ILC Industries “who focused on the mission of making the space suits that made walking on the Moon and returning home safely possible for twelve Apollo astronauts.” He also explains that the employees were “caught up in the excitement of clothing the men who would fly to the far-off surface of the Moon” and that all involved were thrilled to be part of the adventure.
“As newer materials and assembly techniques emerged into the early 1970s, NASA began to regard many of the features of the Apollo suit as obsolete or as providing an increased risk of suit failure, particularly as missions increased in duration,” Ayrey writes. How the company met those challenges and others is a great read.
In the book’s conclusion, the author explains his work with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in preservation of space suits for public display, including the display of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalking suit in the Destination Moon gallery.
The book includes a substantial notes section, filled with suit details and resources.
Explained on the book’s back cover, Apollo 11 astronaut, Michael Collins points out that a space suit is a “miniature space craft,” so well designed for Apollo as described in this book.
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