posted 04-30-2013 11:27 AM               

In response, Universe Today put a call out to several people with knowledge of those spacesuits that were used in the Apollo 1 mission, which ended fatally in January 1967 when all three crew members died in a pad fire.

A lot of redesigns were made to the equipment to prevent the same situation from happening again, but it appears the flags were not that crucial to the spacesuit design — even though a new spacesuit was used in Apollo 7.

Weeks of searching later, we have some great theories from the experts about why the flags were switched, but no definitive answer. Feel free to let us know if you have heard anything!

As commenters on Universe Today have suggested, the change to the left shoulder (after Apollo 1) may have been to follow the U.S. flag code (about the direction of the flag in travel) but it does not explain why the Apollo 1 crew's suits had the flag on the right shoulder.

Here was my reply, as posted on Universe Today:

The Apollo 1 flag placement may have just been aesthetic, given the use of the American flag as a border on their mission patch, the placement allowed the two flags to be near each other and play off each other — but that is just speculation.

Conjecture aside, a couple of possibly related-points with regards to how the flags came to be on the suits and when and how they were sewn on.

1) The Gemini 4 crew considered the U.S. flag to be their mission patch (they were the first crew to wear the flag). In fact, the crew bought the flags themselves, as Jim McDivitt relates in "All We Did Was Fly to the Moon" by Dick Lattimer.

"Ed White and I used the American flag on our shoulders as our patch. This was the first time the American flag had been worn on a pressure suit and it has continued to be used there ever since. The original flags we had sewn on we purchased ourselves. Later on, of course, NASA made this an integral part of the pressure suit."

Given that it was the GT-4 crew's choice to add the flag, it is not unreasonable to believe they selected the placement too (which in their case was the left shoulder).

2) There was a difference between the U.S. flags worn by the Apollo 1 crew (and earlier crews) and those worn by every crew member since, which could have affected when and how they were sewn on: the material.

The Apollo 1 (and earlier mission) flags were nylon; the post-Apollo fire flags (and all mission patches, name tags, etc.) were silk-screened on non-flammable Beta cloth, which was also used as the outer layer of the redesigned suits.

The Beta patches and flags therefore, had to be specially produced — not something the crew could just purchase themselves — and as such became a more formal part of the preparing the suit for flight.

posted 04-15-2022 09:05 PM               

Here is a photo of my cousin helping Ed White dress in his David Clark Block 1 suit and it plainly shows these pen holders.

posted 04-18-2022 12:34 AM               

Orientation of the US flag when mounted on the right shoulder is driven by the US Flag Code. The US Flag Code says the flag’s star field should be to the viewers left when viewed horizontally. “When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag's own right, that is, to the observer's left.” So when the flag was sewn to the right shoulder that put the star field to the rear. Note that the flag which was nylon could have been flipped over since unlike embroidered flag patches there was no specific front or back side. So the flag could have been sewn with the star field to the front but that would have not been in keeping with the flag code. I feel they were in keeping with the US flag code being a government entity. So the real question still remains as to why the flag was on the right shoulder and not the left.

The initial placement of patches on the Apollo 1 spacesuits had the mission patch on the left shoulder above the pen pocket, the US flag on the right shoulder with the star field to the aft, name tag on the right chest and the NASA vector patch on the left chest. So putting the mission patch on the left shoulder may have forced the US flag to be on the other shoulder. The mission patch could have been placed on the right shoulder and the flag on the left as was done with the last Gemini missions instead of the opposite configuration they used. Unfortunately as discussed in the previous posts no one seems to recall, and no supporting documentation seems to exist, as to why the flag was put on the right shoulder.

One observation is that with the mission patch on Grissom’s left shoulder and Grissom seated next to the left window, the mission patch was visible thru the CM window during CM tests, as documented in some photos. With no documentation, there is no supporting evidence as to the reason for the mission patch to be on the left shoulder or if it was dictated by the crew.

Since the suit used a chest mounted LPU, there was not enough room on the chest for the mission patch. The location of the LPU was on the center of the chest with four attachment snaps and reinforcing straps running radially out from the four corners of the LPU pouch. This was a carry-over from the LPU placement on the A6L suit which was replaced by the A1C suit for the Block I missions. Chest mounting the LPU did not leave room on the front of the suit chest for the mission patch. So the only placement for the mission patch was on one of the shoulders.

Later the LPU design was changed to a dual LPU, consisting of two LPU pouches mounted under each arm on a waist strap. This freed up chest space allowing room for placement of the mission patch on the chest with the name tag moved above the mission patch. The placement of the mission patch on the chest also provides clear visibility of the mission patch from the front of the suit. The US flag and NASA vector patch locations remained the same, with the left should left vacant.

posted 04-18-2022 09:28 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by DG27:
Cool photo of your cousin assisting the suit up.

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