Early Development of NASA Space Suits from Apollo to Shuttle

After Apollo, NASA needed to transition to its future of living and working in low earth orbit. It had suits design by ILC Dover to do EVA’s on the moon. Now, they will need a new suit that will allow for extended EVAs in earth orbit and apply their learnings from the Apollo era. -- A space suit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, and are necessary for extravehicular activity (EVA), work done outside spacecraft. Space suits have been worn for such work in Earth orbit, on the surface of the Moon, and en route back to Earth from the Moon. Modern space suits augment the basic pressure garment with a complex system of equipment and environmental systems designed to keep the wearer comfortable, and to minimize the effort required to bend the limbs, resisting a soft pressure garment’s natural tendency to stiffen aga