Bill Ayrey, Lunar Outfitters: Making the Apollo Space Suit

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Title: Bill Ayrey, Lunar Outfitters: Making the Apollo Space Suit

Abstract: When President John. F. Kennedy proposed that this county land a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade in 1961, it challenged NASA and industry since many of the advanced technologies had yet to be invented. This included the space suits we would need to walk on the moon. Two well respected aerospace organizations had experience making high altitude pressure suits but only a couple of engineers from a relatively unknown company had set their sights set on developing a true space suit with high mobility. This constantly challenged NASA and the team at ILC Industries who were developing the new suit. The goal while writing this book was to tell the people story as well as document the technical details of the various models of the Apollo suit including the pre-Apollo suits. 

Bill Ayrey retired in May 2019 from ILC Dover after 41 years of service. He was responsible for managing the test laboratories for the company where the space suits made for the Space Shuttle than the International Space Station were tested prior to delivery. He also represented the company as their historian. Since 1998, he has donated many hours of his time to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum as they focused on the preservation of the Apollo suits in their collection.

Contact Nadine Andreassen (202) 358-0087 or Catherine Baldwin at (202) 358-4397 if you experience any technical issues.

Date/Time: 
10/28/2020 - 09:00
Presenter: 
Bill Ayrey
Location: 
Microsoft Teams