jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith) (09/08/88)
On the first four shuttle flights orange pressure suits were worn. While training for STS-26 I noticed the crew wearing more "NASA-looking" blue pressure suits. Now I see the crew at the Cape wearing the old orange ones again. Did they decide that the orange ones were better for use in actual flight due to their high visibility (which would help in possible rescue operations)? Yes, I know this sounds silly, but those blue pressure suits were a real shock the first time I saw them. -- "The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jay C. Smith uucp: ...!mcnc!ncsuvx!ncspm!jay Domain: jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu internet: jay%ncspm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
steve@pdn.UUCP (Steve Fowler) (09/09/88)
In article <1256@ncspm.ncsu.edu> jay@ncspm.ncsu.EDU (Jay C. Smith) writes: > >On the first four shuttle flights orange pressure suits were worn. While >training for STS-26 I noticed the crew wearing more "NASA-looking" blue >pressure suits. Now I see the crew at the Cape wearing the old orange ones >again. Did they decide that the orange ones were better for use in actual >flight due to their high visibility (which would help in possible rescue >operations)? > The NEW suits are pressure suits. The astronauts upto this point have not used a pressure suit for lift off and landing. The new suit will protect the astronaut in the event of an abandon ship emergency. The new escape system installed on the shuttle will allow for a high altitude escape from the shuttle on landing and the pressure suits are needed for that. Why they went from blue to orange is anybodies guess. The blue ones seems to be used while the astronauts are in space and for ground activities. -- Steve Fowler W(813) 530-8708 Paradyne Corporation | \ _ / "I can't even be held responsible for Mail Stop LF-207 | ~o.O~ acK, my own opinions much less my employer's" 8550 Ulmerton Rd., | (_|_) oOpth, ..!{uunet,peora}!pdn!steve Largo, FL 34641 | / U thhFf!!?
dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) (09/10/88)
In article <1256@ncspm.ncsu.edu>, jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith) writes: > > On the first four shuttle flights orange pressure suits were worn. While > training for STS-26 I noticed the crew wearing more "NASA-looking" blue > pressure suits. Now I see the crew at the Cape wearing the old orange ones > again. At the time of STS-1, news coverage said the orange suits were the same type worn by SR-71 pilots. They stopped using them because the Shuttle was "operational". (More operational than an SR-71? Hmmm.) I didn't see any blue pressure suits, just blue jumpsuits. On the news a few days ago, I heard that the astronauts had said that their new partial pressure suits were not comfortable. That would suggest that the new suits are not SR-71 full pressure suits. -- David Smith HP Labs dsmith@hplabs.hp.com
mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick) (09/10/88)
In article <1256@ncspm.ncsu.edu> jay@ncspm.ncsu.EDU (Jay C. Smith) writes: > >On the first four shuttle flights orange pressure suits were worn. While >training for STS-26 I noticed the crew wearing more "NASA-looking" blue >pressure suits. . . . I'm sorry but I can't add anything to this mystery, but it did remind me of another interesting piece of trivia,this time regarding spacesuits. I'm sure you are all familiar with the "offical" looking space suits from Mercury. My, we were all thrilled to see our astronauts dressed up in those neat >>>silver<<< spacesuits, just like Buck Rogers, et al. Well, the main reason why they were silver (instead of the natural green color of those kind of pressure suits) was because "silver was in that year". Spacemen wore silver suits, not green ones. (there were some minor reasons as well, but the looks of them was the the most important) -- *** mike (starship janitor) smithwick *** "You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mom". [disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (09/11/88)
In article <4891@hplabsb.UUCP> dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) writes: >At the time of STS-1, news coverage said the orange suits were the same >type worn by SR-71 pilots. They stopped using them because the Shuttle >was "operational". (More operational than an SR-71? Hmmm.) I didn't >see any blue pressure suits, just blue jumpsuits. On the news a few days >ago, I heard that the astronauts had said that their new partial pressure >suits were not comfortable. That would suggest that the new suits are >not SR-71 full pressure suits. Different kinds of suits. On the early shuttle missions, the pilots wore SR-71 suits (which are basically Gemini suits) because they might have to eject at fairly high speed and altitude. These are full pressure suits. The ejection seats were removed once the shuttle was considered operational, and the crews just wore jumpsuits (except for EVA, of course). The "rescue ball" was the closest that the non-EVA crew members got to having pressure suits. However, in the post-Challenger investigation it was noticed that the Challenger crew might have survived if they had had parachutes, oxygen, and some sort of pressure suit. So they are now wearing partial-pressure suits -- much lighter and more compact than full-pressure suits, but less comfortable -- for launch (and descent?). -- NASA is into artificial | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology stupidity. - Jerry Pournelle | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
petej@phred.UUCP (Pete Jarvis) (09/12/88)
In article <1256@ncspm.ncsu.edu> jay@ncspm.ncsu.EDU (Jay C. Smith) writes: > >On the first four shuttle flights orange pressure suits were worn. While >training for STS-26 I noticed the crew wearing more "NASA-looking" blue >pressure suits. Now I see the crew at the Cape wearing the old orange ones Jay, the blue suits they normally wear are not pressure suits. They are flight suits. The orange pressure suits were used for ground tests only. They will wear the flight suits for actual missions. Peter Jarvis - Physio Conrol - Redmond, WA.
jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith) (09/13/88)
From the original poster: Hey, I did see blue full- or partial-pressure suits while the STS-26 crew was in training. On CBS' "48 Hours" report on the shuttle program there was one clip that showed the shuttle crew walking down a hallway to the simulator for a full-blown rehearsal -- and were wearing blue pressure suits, not flight suits or coveralls. I can tell the difference. On silver being "in" during the Mercury program: was white in during Gemini and Apollo, or was that just the natural color of the suits? Seems like they would have been orange for the same reason I presume the shuttle ones are -- ease in spotting during rescue operations. I thought it was funny that they had to add those red bands to one of the EVA suits for Apollo. NASA went against the science fiction creators when they didn't use different color suits on each astronaut. -- "The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jay C. Smith uucp: ...!mcnc!ncsuvx!ncspm!jay Domain: jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu internet: jay%ncspm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) (09/13/88)
In article <1262@ncspm.ncsu.edu>, jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith) writes: > Hey, I did see blue full- or partial-pressure suits while the STS-26 crew was > in training. On CBS' "48 Hours" report on the shuttle program there was one > clip that showed the shuttle crew walking down a hallway to the simulator for > a full-blown rehearsal -- and were wearing blue pressure suits, not flight > suits or coveralls. I can tell the difference. OK, you were referring to STS-26. I had thought you were referring to 5 through 25. Since your original posting, AW&ST ran a picture of the STS-26 crew in the cockpit with the dark blue partial pressure suits on. > On silver being "in" during the Mercury program: was white in during Gemini > and Apollo, or was that just the natural color of the suits? Seems like they > would have been orange for the same reason I presume the shuttle ones are -- > ease in spotting during rescue operations. I thought it was funny that they > had to add those red bands to one of the EVA suits for Apollo. NASA went > against the science fiction creators when they didn't use different color > suits on each astronaut. I suppose they were white for thermal control -- the suits had to have cooling systems, after all. (But where were the radiators, or why were they white?) Red bands were the low-thermal-impact way of telling Neil from Buzz. -- David Smith HP Labs dsmith@hplabs.hp.com
mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick) (09/13/88)
In article <4897@hplabsb.UUCP> dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) writes: > >I suppose they were white for thermal control -- the suits had to have >cooling systems, after all. (But where were the radiators, or why were >they white?) Red bands were the low-thermal-impact way of telling >Neil from Buzz. >-- Actually the red bands were the way of telling Al from Pete or Jim from Fred. They were added to the suits following Apollo 11 because no one could tell who was who in the pictures. It ended up being moot, since Neil was the only one with the camera. By the way, Spaceflight magazine ran an intresting article about the Apollo 11 pictures, taking note that there was apparently no high-quality photo of Armstrong. Finally,someone found one, a single frame on a lunar panorama with Neil in the LM's shadow, but still it's pretty poor. The article also mentioned that Armstrong argued against using color film on the lunar surface, because it had "no scientific value". -- *** mike (starship janitor) smithwick *** "You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mom". [disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]
jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith) (09/14/88)
In article <14814@ames.arc.nasa.gov> mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Mike Smithwick) writes: >The article also mentioned that Armstrong argued against using >color film on the lunar surface, because it had "no scientific value". I would hope that they used b&w film along with color, since the debate over the longevity of either continues. They used Kodak slide film for the color pictures, didn't they? I always remember the National Geographic captions -- instead of "photos by NASA" they would individually credit each photo: "Ektachrome by Charles "Pete" Conrad" or something like that. Gee, this is getting away from the subject line, isn't it? -- "I don't suppose you have any idea what the damn thing is, huh?" --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jay C. Smith uucp: ...!mcnc!ncsuvx!ncspm!jay Domain: jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu internet: jay%ncspm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu