Apollo/Skylab spacesuit: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 14:29, 21 August 2020

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{{short description|Space suit used in Apollo and Skylab missions}}

[[File:Apollo 11 space suit.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Neil Armstrong]] described his Apollo 11 A7L suit as "tough, reliable and almost cuddly."<ref>{{cite news|title=Science Friday Archives: How to Dress for Space Travel |url=http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201103256 |newspaper=NPR |date=March 25, 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010145433/http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201103256 |archivedate=October 10, 2011 }}</ref>]]

The '''Apollo/Skylab spacesuitspace suit''' is a class of [[space suit]]s used in [[Apollo program|Apollo]] and [[Skylab]] missions. The names for both the Apollo and Skylab space suits were Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU).<ref name="us">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 428–435 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s }}</ref> The Apollo EMUs consisted of a Pressure Suit Assembly (PSA) aka "suit" and a Portable Life Support System (PLSS) that was more commonly called the "backpack".<ref name="us1">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 428–433 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s }}</ref> The A7L was the PSA model used on the Apollo 7 through 14 missions.<ref name="us2">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 428–429 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s }}</ref>

The subsequent Apollo 15-17 lunar missions,<ref name="us3">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 430–431 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s }}</ref> Skylab,<ref name="us4">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 432–433 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s }}</ref> and [[Apollo-Soyuz]] used A7LB pressure suits.<ref name="us5">{{cite book |title= US Spacesuits |author1=Kenneth S. Thomas |author2=Harold J. McMann |year= 2006 |publisher= Praxis Publishing Ltd. |___location= Chichester, UK |isbn= 0-387-27919-9 | pages = 434–435 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdO2-4szcdgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s }}</ref> Additionally, these pressure suits varied by program usage. For the Skylab EMU, NASA elected to use an umbilical life support system named the Astronaut Life Support Assembly.