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Bill Ayrey interview about his book Lunar Outfitters
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/2T2p2k9
Interview Summary
Bill Ayrey has worked on spacesuits for decades. He started his spacesuit career at ILC, the makers of the Apollo spacesuits. He loved his work there so much, he wrote a book on the history of the Apollo 11 spacesuits. We spoke about Apollo 11, the spacesuits, the book, and spacesuits in general including a bit on space shuttle and SpaceX spacesuits.
(THE AUDIO PLAYER IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.)
(Note: I don’t know why I kept saying you to Bill, when I meant ILC which made the suits but please forgive that verbal mistake of mine.)
0:40 – Bill Ayrey talks about why he wrote a book on the Apollo program spacesuits.
3:56 – Bill talks about working with Smithsonian to preserve the Apollo spacesuits.
4:12 – Bill talks about the Mercury and Gemini suits and how those led to the Apollo suits.
7:40 – Bill talks about the effects of the Apollo 1 disaster on spacesuit development.
12:05 – Bill talks about the layers of the spacesuit.
14:26 – Bill talks about the materials in the suit and the testing process.
17:43 – Bill talks about the integrity of the seams and how they were secured.
20:10 – Bill talk about the work ILC did on the helmet.
23:11 – Bill talks about issues with the suits being tailor-made for each astronaut.
27:19 – Bill talks about the suit and radiation and micrometeorites.
29:36 – Bill talks about wear and tear on the suits and how they’re only made for single missions.
33:35 – Bill talks about the difficulty in trying to improve spacesuit mobility.
37:06 – Bill talks about the boots of the spacesuit. They had pressure boots and lunar boots.
40:24 – Bill talks about how the suit was tested and a diaper system they developed.
45:05 – Bill talks about spacesuit experts being present during the mission in the control center.
47:09 – Bill talks about the golf club swing on the moon. He also talks about the backpack.
49:44 – Bill talks about the security for the spacesuits. He also talks about Russian spacesuits.
52:16 – Bill talks about the large numbers of files he has about Apollo and the spacesuit.
54:36 – Bill talks about the rumor that the astronauts carried sidearms for when they returned. He also talks about the suits being made to resist water flooding.
57:57 – Bill talks about the time it took to get into and out of the suit.
59:28 – Bill talks about some developmental suits he hadn’t known about.
1:01:35 – Bill talked about having some trouble getting documents about the work with Hamilton Standard.
1:06:10 – Bill talks about how big ILC was at the start of their work and then how they grew over time. He also talks about configuration management.
1:07:47 – Bill talks about some of the emotional impact of researching and writing the book.
1:09:17 – Bill hopes the book will help today’s spacesuit engineers better understand the work. He also talks about the Smithsonian’s efforts to preserve space history and preserve the spacesuits.
1:13:17 – Bill talks about spacesuit knowledge gaps between the shuttle missions and now.
He also talks about the current business environment for spacesuits.
1:18:00 – Bill talks about Elon Musk and SpaceX’s intravehicular pressure suits.
1:19:53 – Bill talks about finishing the book and getting it published. He had to push to keep all the images in the book.
1:22:11 – Bill talks about the images in the book.
1:23:35 – Bill talks about future book projects on spacesuits.
1:25:49 – Bill mentions a few points about shuttle mission spacesuits.
Links of interest
https://floridapress.blog/2020/10/08/lunar-outfitters/
Contact Information
For more “Technology and Space” please follow me at technologyandspace.com or www.spacewalksmoneytalks.com , on Facebook at Spacewalks Money Talks, on twitter at SpacewalksMT, on youtube at Spacewalks Money Talks , and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Bill Ayrey
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, space history, space technology, manned space missions, audio interviews, space book, Apollo 11, NASA history, podcast, University Press of Florida, podcast,
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/2T2p2k9
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