(searching music)
For a human to work in space,
he or she must have a space suit.
It protects the astronaut
from the vacuum beyond the atmosphere, supply oxygen,
as well as insulation from the extremes of heat and cold.
The space suit has to have
means of communication with the outside world
and it must enable freedom of movement.
The modern space suit
is the result of a long and complex evolution.
(thrilling orchestral music)
(electrical crackling) (sonic boom)
Long before humans had traveled to space,
aviators wanted to fly at heights
that could not support life.
In 1932, Auguste Piccard flew above 16,000 meters
in a helium filled balloon.
To stay alive,
Piccard ascended in an aluminum pressure vessel
fed with compressed air.
Spanish aviator, Emilio Herreras
came up with a different solution.
His stratospheric suit never flew,
it was an idea ahead of its time.
In the United States,
aviator Wiley Post had supercharged his plane,
the Winnie Mae.
It could fly at 15,000 meters where the jet streams blow.
Posts knew he could save fuel and fly faster at that height
so with the help of tire maker, BF Goodrich,
he devised the first serviceable pressure suit.
At this time
even military aircraft were flying at much lower altitudes
where the use of a simple oxygen mask
was enough to ensure pilot efficiency.
However, as jet power was introduced,
operation ceilings lifted.
At high altitudes, low ambient air pressure
meant the oxygen mask would lift off the face
when oxygen was fed to the pilot
at pressures high enough to sustain life.
When bombers like the B-36
began long duration missions at high altitudes
they adopted pressurized crew compartments
yet the pressure suit,
with a fully enclosed helmet, was necessary
as sudden cabin depressurization could be lethal.
In the 1950s partial pressure suits became common.
They had inflatable capstans
that stopped blood draining to the legs under heavy G-forces
avoiding blackouts.
Air crews hated them
but figures showed they functioned more effectively
when wearing them.
In 1955 a unique American spy plane made its first flight.
The following year
the U-2 began reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union.
Flying at 21,000 meters,
it was beyond the range of Soviet radar
and neither jet fighters nor missiles could reach it.
Pilots flying the U-2
wore a new partial pressure suit, the MC-3.
Rather than save a pilot's life
in case of sudden depressurization,
this suit was designed to be under pressure
throughout the mission,
without it, the pilots blood would boil.
As missile technology developed
it appeared that human beings would be dispensed with
as a weak link,
not able to cope with conditions imposed by the technology.
(rocket roaring)
But the US Air Force had different ideas,
they felt that a pilot could make better decisions
than a guidance system
and they began a research program using hypersonic aircraft
to learn about the problems
associated with ultra high speed,
ultra high altitude operations.
The culmination of this program was represented by the X-15,
a rocket powered aircraft
that could fly to the edge of the atmosphere.
Because of its limited fuel load,
the X-15 was launched from beneath a B-52 bomber
at an altitude of 15,000 meters.
(air hissing)
(indistinct talk over radio)
The cabin of the X-15 was pressurized with nitrogen
to reduce the risk of fire.
For the pilot a new full pressure flight suit,
known as the XMC-2, was developed,
it too was pressurized with nitrogen.
A neck dam excluded the nitrogen from the helmet,
which was fed with oxygen for life support.
This suit was the predecessor
of NASA's most important space suits.
The X-15 set the speed record for a powered aircraft
at well above 7,000 kilometers per hour
and the altitude record at just over 107,000 meters.
The first real space suit
was worn by Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.
In 1961, aboard Vostok 1,
he became the first man to orbit the Earth.
His suit, the SK-1,
was to protect against capsule depressurization
and to sustain him during ejection from his craft.
The Vostok cosmonauts had to parachute to the ground
because their capsules landed too heavily.
Since 1959, the newly formed US space agency, NASA,
had been working towards launching an American into space.
Seven test pilots had been selected
as the Mercury programs first group of astronauts.
The first attempt would be a short hop
as the only booster available at the time, the Redstone,
lacked the power to reach orbit.
An important part of the preparation
involved the development of a space suit.
As a starting point,
NASA looked at the XMC-2 used for X-15 flights
and the Navy's aviation pressure suit, the Mark IV,
both were full pressure suits.
(intensifying orchestral music)
NASA decided that the Mark IV suit,
worn here by Alan Shepherd, was lighter
and could be more easily modified for space flight.
The boot leather and the suits gray outer covering
would be replaced by aluminized nylon,
for greater thermal control,
and the helmets rubber diaphragm surrounding the face
was eliminated
with oxygen now entering via a hose at the waist
to help cool the suit.
For all six manned mercury missions
the Mark IV suit performed well
but the demands placed upon it were modest.
Like most pressure suits at the time it served as a backup
in the event of cabin pressure failure,
because this never happened on the Mercury flights
this suit was only ever pressurized at launch.
In the early 1960s the Soviet Union space program
was achieving an impressive list of firsts.
For the United States,
this was a source of national embarrassment.
In 1961 the new president, John Kennedy,
had boldly proclaimed
that America should land a man on the Moon
before the end of the decade
and NASA was flooded with funds.
This was the beginning of the Space Race.
I don't think we ought to waste any money
but I think we ought to do the job
and this will be done in the decade of the 60s.
The Mercury program was terminated early
in favor of a more complex series of missions
with the aim of solving problems
associated with sending a man to the Moon.
The Gemini program made use of a new two man capsule
boosted to orbit atop a modified nuclear missile.
Gemini required a new suit with new capabilities.
NASA now understood
future missions would have to last much longer,
suits would have to be more comfortable,
and astronauts would have to leave their spacecraft
in the vacuum of space.
Gemini controllers were planning the first spacewalk.
In the less open Soviet Union,
they were also preparing for a spacewalk.
Cosmonaut Alexa Leonov
was practicing with an inflatable canvas airlock
in temporary weightlessness
in an aircraft, in a parabolic flight path.
He was wearing a new space suit, the Berkut,
designed to function outside his Voskhod spacecraft.
The airlock was needed because the new Voskhod
still did not have solid state electronics,
it's thermionics valves needed air cooling
so the capsule could not be evacuated.
(Cosmonaut speaking over radio)
In March, 1965, Alexei Leonov left the airlock on Voskhod 2
to float freely in space.
It was another first for the Soviet Union.
Soon his Berkut space suit
began ballooning to such an extent
that Leonov could not reach his camera's shutter release
positioned on his leg.
It was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union
that the full story became known.
The Berkut space suit had expanded so much
that Leonov could not get back inside,
only by venting his space suit
could the cosmonaut regain entry to the Voskhod capsule.
Back at NASA, they heard that Leonov's spacewalk
had been a resounding success
but they felt the Gemini program was catching up.
In June, 1965, astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White
were preparing for the world's second spacewalk.
(rocket boosters screaming)
Gemini IV's launch went smoothly
and, on the third orbit, Ed White left the capsule.
(NASA and Ed talking over radio)
Although they didn't know it,
the greater sophistication of the Gemini craft
made this spacewalk much simpler
than Alexei Leonov's just two months earlier.
Okay, I'm out.
It was easy to depressurize the entire capsule,
so no airlock was needed
and Ed White's spacesuit
was fed through an umbilical connected to the spacecraft.
Leonov carried his own oxygen in a backpack
that made re-entry to the Voskhod capsule that much harder.
Within the structure of the Gemini suit
was a mesh that prevented the ballooning problem
experienced during the Russian spacewalk.
(Ed White speaking over radio)
The first American spacewalk went so well
that NASA assumed working in space
presented few obstacles.
White's joy ride in space
gave no indication of the difficulties that lay ahead.
(ethereal music)
The Gemini program had a number of goals
and in December, 1965, Gemini VI-A and Gemini VII
achieved two of them; rendezvous, and long duration flight.
The crew of Gemini VII remained in orbit for 14 days.
Mission planners
knew that staying in a space suit for two weeks
would be a challenge so a new version of the GC3 space suit,
called the G5C, was worn by the Gemini VII astronauts.
It replaced the pressure helmet with a zippered hood
and Frank Borman and Jim Lovell became the first people
to remove their space suits in flight.
New technologies
were being pioneered in the Gemini spacecraft
and problems with the new systems
often meant Gemini flights were only partially successful.
The capsule had to be capable of far more complex maneuvers
than its predecessor and longer duration missions
required fuel cell technology for electric power.
In March, 1966,
Gemini VIII had successfully rendezvoused
and then docked with a target vehicle,
but a thruster problem sent the linked craft into a spin.
The mission was immediately terminated,
the scheduled spacewalk did not take place
and the craft landed in the Pacific
half a world away from the planned landing area.
Three months later, Gemini IX could not dock
because it's target vehicles fairing
had not been jettisoned.
The scheduled spacewalk went disastrously wrong,
when Gene Cernan inflated his suit it did not want to bend.
Exhaustion and a fogging space helmet
saw Cernan called back inside, he was overheating.
Training for a spacewalk
was limited to brief periods of weightlessness
in an aircraft,
or being suspended in a special jig
that moved via an air suspension system
across a smooth floor.
Neither provided anything like the real thing.
Engineers had realized
that the current generation of spacesuit
worked well sitting in a spacecraft
but when doing strenuous work
its air cooling system was inadequate.
New designs were already in train.
The next two Gemini flights both failed to demonstrate
that an astronaut in a spacesuit
could do meaningful work in space.
Before the final Gemini flight
a new training simulation was tried.
A mock-up of the Gemini craft
docked to an Agena Target Vehicle
was built in the McDonogh School indoor pool,
an approximation of the true weightless environment
it allowed astronaut Buzz Aldrin
to train for extended periods.
Handholds were fitted to the outside of the spacecraft
and the extra vehicular work assignments on Gemini XII
were a complete success.
It gave NASA planners
the confidence to move to the Apollo program
and the final stages
in America's progress to its Moon landing.
By 1966 it was apparent
that Apollo was well behind schedule.
The first manned flight of the program
had been delayed by almost a year
because of developmental problems
with the Apollo spacecraft.
NASA was rushing to meet the 1969 Moon landing deadline
set by President Kennedy and privately summoned,
the astronaut corps felt that Harry was not good
for the development of a new capsule.
(astronauts talking in background)
NASA had flagged changes to later models of the space craft
but the early Block 1 version
would still carry a crew in the first manned mission
to test systems in Earth orbit.
A new spacesuit was being developed
for use on the later moon missions
but it would not be ready for Apollo 1
who's astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee
would wear a slightly different version
of the Gemini GC4 suit.
All American spacecraft
had been pressurized with pure oxygen.
This had weight saving benefits
and, by exclusion of nitrogen found in natural air
the danger of bubbles forming in the bloodstream
during rapid decompression was eliminated.
Though the pure oxygen environment presented a fire danger
nobody had thought to check the real risks.
In January, 1967,
less than a month before the scheduled launch date,
the Apollo 1 crew were in their capsule
under simulated launch conditions,
with the craft being tested under its own power.
A spark triggered a fire and in seconds the crew were dead.
The inquiry into the fire
found the astronauts had died of asphyxiation
from carbon monoxide.
Both the space suits and the cabin
made extensive use of combustible materials,
for the program to continue
everything would have to be redesigned.
Research into the problems
associated with a spacesuit that could be used on the Moon
had been going on since 1962.
The new suit had to be rugged,
designers were still not sure
what the lunar surface would present.
All previous suits had been fed
with oxygen and power from an external source,
the Moon suit had to be self-contained
and the backpack supplying life support presented problems.
The backpacks dimensions and weight
were determined by extensive testing
and designers of the life support,
battery and communication systems
worked within strict parameters.
After the Apollo 1 tragedy,
flammable components had been removed
and an outer layer of Beta cloth,
of woven silica fiber coated with Teflon, was added.
Many different ways
of simulating the Moons 1/6th gravity were trialed,
finally, the A7-L suit emerged.
Beneath the outer layer a tight fitting suit
with elbow, wrist, and knee joints
of a bellows like structure
that maintained equal volume when bent
allowed freedom of movement absent in previous suits.
Beneath the pressure suit,
a light open weave layer was networked with fine tubes
circulating cooling water,
this carried away excess body heat
that earlier air cooled suits had not coped with.
The pressure suit and the outer protective layer
were joined together
with the inner cooling garment remaining separate.
On Earth, the whole suit weighed 35 kilograms
with the backpack, a further 60 kilograms.
It was the A7-L that went to the Moon
with the first three successful Apollo lunar missions
and it performed flawlessly.
It continued to evolve
as subsequent missions became more demanding.
The moon suit was robust
and Apollo astronauts had complete confidence in it.
No lunar mission ever had a problem with the spacesuit.
(rockets hiss)
We have main booster.
With the arrival of the Space Shuttle,
NASA was expecting to do serious work in orbit
and it needed a new space suit.
The extra vehicular mobility unit, or EMU,
is a direct descendant of the Apollo A7-L,
it's main difference is the rigid upper torso.
Because they are used in a weightless environment
the new suits could be heavier than the Apollo suit,
which operated in lunar gravity.
The EMU is not custom tailored for each user,
components are made in a range of sizes
and are interchangeable.
Parts are intended to have a useful life of around 15 years.
With the Shuttle,
NASA envisioned servicing satellites in low Earth orbit
but first it had to learn how to do simple tasks.
New technologies were combined with the spacesuit.
In 1984, astronaut Bruce McCandless,
using the Manned Maneuvering Unit,
flew independently beside the Space Shuttle, Challenger.
After four hours he returned safely.
The MMU was used for satellite recovery
on two subsequent occasions with mixed results.
After the Challenger disaster,
NASA reviewed all aspects of safety
and the MMU was retired as too risky.
A simpler technique emerged,
with foot restraints on the Shuttles robotic arm
astronauts could be moved accurately to a site
and have a stable work platform.
(rocket rumbling)
In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched,
unlike other satellites,
Hubble was designed to be visited by the Space Shuttle
for regular maintenance and upgrades.
Over a 16 year span
there were five servicing missions to the telescope,
the first being to fix an error in its manufacture.
It is a game ending activity.
Each servicing mission
called for long and complex space walks.
(water bubbling)
The EVAs were all thoroughly rehearsed
in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
The astronauts are weighted
so that they neither rise nor sink
and all the large components that they handle
are similarly neutral.
Astronauts still have the perception of up and down
in neutral buoyancy, unlike in weightlessness.
In 1998 work commenced on the International Space Station,
a collaboration
between the US, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
This was the type of project
for which the Space Shuttle had been designed
and the expertise that NASAs Astronaut Corps had gained
was to be put to use for on-orbit construction.
As the space station grew, the EMU space suit was refined.
Increased battery capacity was added
so that small heaters in the gloves
could keep astronauts fingers warm
during passages through the Earth's shadow.
A new safety system was added to the EMU suits,
called SAFER, the simplified maneuvering system
is designed for emergencies
in the rare event that a space walker
becomes untethered from the Space Station.
It was first tested in 1994
but it has never been used for an actual emergency.
With the completion of the ISS in 2011,
the Space Shuttle was retired,
this meant sole access to the orbiting laboratory
was via the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Cosmonauts and astronauts wear the Russian Sokol flight suit
during trips to and from orbit.
For maintenance and repair sorties outside the ISS,
crew will wear either the EMU
or the Russian Orlan spacesuit.
Many of the Europeans on board
have training in the use of both.
The Orlan spacesuit is very practical,
designed to be serviced on the Space Station
it has a rigid torso
with the helmet and visor joined to the suit
and access is via a rear hatch.
Cosmonauts wear a water-cooled undergarment
similar to the American suit.
Unlike the American suit,
the Orlan can be put on in just five minutes.
In the MKS, the latest version of the Orlan,
a cosmonaut can safely remain outside for seven hours.
And finally, NASA is working on a new generation suit
to meet its future needs,
called the PXS for Prototype Exploration Suit
it also features a rear entry hatch.
The PXS has a more advanced life support system
and is lighter.
A different version, called the Z-2,
is being developed for use on the surface of Mars,
it allows a greater range of movement
and its life support system will take less time to recharge,
although neither suit has yet been used
in conjunction with its life support backpack.
(inspiring orchestral music)