Spacesuit design is moving into the realms of fashion, says Jonathan Powell
The astronomer’s forum FIELD OF VIEW
While astronomers may not typically lead in the fashion stakes, there is one closely linked sphere that has moved with the times – that of spaceflight, the astronaut and, in particular, the spacesuit.
The basic template for the early spacesuit would have been drawn from attire affording protection for those working in similarly testing environments, such as the deep-sea diver and the aircraft pilot. Clothing for both of these roles was functional and robust, with a proven track record of achieving what the suit was designed to do.
However, after rigorous testing of suits like these, doubt must have crept into the mind of even the most disciplined of astronauts. A leaky diving suit could potentially see its wearer pulled up from the watery depths quickly enough to save them, but once you’ve ventured into space, the options for survival in one are more limited or, more accurately, nil.
As the Soviet Union and the USA jostled for the prize of putting the first human not just in space but on the Moon, NASA and its foreign counterpart grappled with one of the biggest headaches: potential damage to the membrane of the spacesuit while in space. NASA had constructed a vacuum chamber to test its spacesuits. Dubbed the ‘Moon Room’, it was apparent early on that the agency was more interested in the long game.
With Sputnik-1 already in the bag for the Soviets, Yuri Gagarin’s spacesuit, the SK-1 (standing for the Russian Skafandr Kosmicheskiy, literally translated as ‘diving suit for space’) became the first spacesuit ever used. With the Americans close on their heels, the Moon loomed even larger on the horizon, and it’s here that NASA ramped up their efforts.
The Mercury, Gemini and subsequent Apollo programmes put the US firmly back on the
