Tuesday, December 21, 2010

New York Times examines Smithsonian's Space Suit collection.





I've always been fascinated by spacesuits. "Have Spacesuit Will Travel," was the first Robert Heinlein book I read and I chose it based solely on the cover. The New York Times has a piece about The Smithsonian Institute's collection of Spacesuits. Some were worn by famous astronauts and some were prototypes that never made it into space. The Smithsonian is putting together a traveling exhibition about the suits.
Sadly it will consist mostly of full-sized images and x-rays of the suits because they are too delicate to travel. Be sure to check out the accompanying image galleries and videos at the link, there's an interactive x-ray on an Apollo suit that is especially good.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/science/21spacesuit.html