posted 01-20-2009 10:55 AM            

They are wearing blue pressure suits that appear to be some un-used prototype or perhaps made-for-training, but I would like some clarification and background on them.

posted 01-20-2009 07:13 PM            

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Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
Actually, all they probably were were the ILC spacesuits without the white beta cloth layer...

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Yes. I believe that those are the A6L variants of ILC's Apollo Block 2 pressure garment. The A6L would have required the donning of a separate thermal-micrometeoroid garment (TMG) for EVA--you sometimes see it in ca. 1967 photos looking like a fluffy snowsuit. It was so bulky that it couldn't be worn in the cramped command module when the crews were all seated.

The A6L had some other design issues, including (if I recall correctly) being uncomfortably tight under the arms.

After the Apollo 1 fire, improvements in the suit led to the A7L. This variant included a fire-retardant function added to the TMG, which (to be effective) had to be integrated (thus, the "TMG" became the "ITMG") with the pressure garment when it was worn in the cabin. The astronauts just had to tolerate its bulkiness when suited for launch and TLI.

The ITMG on the A7L was still removable, and sometimes you see old ITMGs for sale without the pressure garment.

Anyway, the now-obsolete A6Ls found use in water survival training, which can be rough on such things. I don't know how many A6Ls were built and bought, but many were used in training by a succession of astronauts.

posted 01-21-2009 12:33 AM               

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Originally posted by SBIV-B:
I have pictures of the Apollo 8 crew and back-up crew conducting emergency egress training in the Gulf of Mexico.

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I would be interested in seeing any pictures of the Apollo 8 backup crew during emergency egress training. I only know of one photo showing Fred Haise, but none of Armstrong and Aldrin...

Ed

posted 01-21-2009 07:43 AM               

A low to medium res scan would be fine and protect your original's value.

posted 01-21-2009 12:24 PM               

Cheers,

posted 01-21-2009 07:30 PM            

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Originally posted by kr4mula:
...You had to be able to take it off because the CMP wore the same suit (PGA) but with the intravehicular cover layer (ICL) instead of the ITMG...

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Not the same: there were fewer connectors on the front of the CMP suit than on the CDR/LMP EVA suits.

And don't forget that EVA was originally allowed for on Apollo 8, back when it was still Apollo 9, the E mission, and the CDR and LMP might have needed to make an EVA transfer from the LM back to the CM.

posted 01-22-2009 01:48 AM               

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Originally posted by SBIV-B:
I have never seen Armstrong and Aldrin either. I wonder why just Fred?

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This probably is because he was a late addition to the backup crew. Possibly the complete backup crew (Armstrong, Lovell and Aldrin) went through egress training earlier. Still, there must be photos of that training somewhere...

posted 01-26-2009 10:17 AM               

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Originally posted by kr4mula:
The A6L suit was the first to incorporate the changes from the Apollo 1 fire, but to my recollection, it was intended as a developmental model, not as the final lunar suit.

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On the original pre-Apollo 1 fire timeline the A6L was the production configuration intended for use on the lunar surface, and ordered in quantities that reflected this. Yes, it was a less than ideal suit but it was fully functional, and (as was tragically demonstrated by the fire) there was something of a 'deadline fever' at the time.

After the fire the A6L was extensively re-worked and for a time these suits were in service as the 'uprated A6L'. This is the A6L suit most often shown in the commonest NASA photos of the A6L, which accounts for some of the confusion that exists about this designation. They're fairly easy to tell apart - the original A6L had the separately donned trousers and jacket TMGs, completely covering all the chest connectors which connected with the PLSS via hoses beneath the TMG. (Not to plug my site but if you click into the A6L suit in my Apollo collection you'll see a photo of Harrison Schmitt wearing the original A6L - minus the lunar boots so you can see the blue PGA.)

The uprated A6L closely resembles the A7L that it became - the difference between the two is no more than a decision at a certain stage in the improvement process to re-designate the new configuration as the A7L.

Most of this info is in the excellent 'US Spacesuits' by Kenneth Thomas & Harold McMann - anyone with even a glimmer of interest in the development of the suits will find a gold-mine of detail.

Cheers,
Matt