Bras in Space: The Incredible True Story Behind Upcoming Film "Spacesuit"

[Katashi_itto]

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” – President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, Rice University.

When we think of the Apollo 11 moon landing, what do we think of? President Kennedy’s bold vision. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s heroism (unfortunately we rarely think about Command Module Pilot Michael Collins). Perhaps we even think of the incredible engineers, rocket scientists, astrophysicists and all the other geniuses at NASA who made it possible. Now we want you to think about your grandma’s bra.

Why? Because without the technology behind that brassiere (or girdle), the moon landing would have been impossible. It turns out that the 21-layers of gossamer-thin fabric in the Apollo spacesuits that kept Armstrong and Aldrin from “the lethal desolation of a lunar vacuum,” as Nicholas de Monchaux puts it in his remarkable book “Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo,” was created by the same people who made your grandma’s bra. Playtex. And now, Warner Bros. has hired Richard Cordiner to adapt De Monchaux’s book, which is a story so good you almost believe it was scripted by a Hollywood scribe, not part of historical fact.


A crucial cog in the Apollo 11 moon landing, hard at work. Courtesy ILC Dover, LP
The creation of the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment is one of the great American stories of the past forty-plus years. When America pitched itself into the great Space Race, and president Kennedy declared we’d have a man on the moon by the end of the decade, among many of the colossal obstacles NASA had to face was how to make a suit that could withstand space’s incredibly hostile environment. NASA turned the creation of the spacesuit into a competition (largely dominated by military contractors)—and it was assumed a military contractor would win the day.

http://www.thecredits.org/2013/09/bras-in-space-the-incredible-true-story-behind-upcoming-film-spacesuit/

[spin]

1. Great story. (n/t)

[Katashi_itto]

2. It is pretty cool!

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. What an uplifting story!

(it is a good story)

[Savannahmann]

4. This story was part of a television series a few years ago.

It was called Moon Machines, and it covered the Engineers who developed the technology to go to the moon. The Space Suit was a single episode. The design, material, and problems that had to be overcome were covered briefly. It is an amazing story that was part of a unique documentary series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_machines

[hootinholler]

5. Yet this didn't make it into their advertising

At least that I am aware of. It was always "Cross your heart."

[Katashi_itto]

6. Separates and lifts and will protect you from meteorites, radiation and solar flares...

[awoke_in_2003]

7. I like Buzz Aldrin...

but Jane Russel was easier on the eyes

[Hekate]

8. Fantastic and funny all at once. Playtex knew the human body & its needs...

... a whole lot better than people who design tanks and missiles for a living. Who'da' thunk it?