Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle fashions
Message-ID: <1988Sep10.234556.6820@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1256@ncspm.ncsu.edu> <4891@hplabsb.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 88 23:45:56 GMT

In article <4891@hplabsb.UUCP> dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) writes:
>At the time of STS-1, news coverage said the orange suits were the same
>type worn by SR-71 pilots.  They stopped using them because the Shuttle
>was "operational".  (More operational than an SR-71?  Hmmm.)  I didn't
>see any blue pressure suits, just blue jumpsuits.  On the news a few days
>ago, I heard that the astronauts had said that their new partial pressure
>suits were not comfortable.  That would suggest that the new suits are
>not SR-71 full pressure suits.

Different kinds of suits.  On the early shuttle missions, the pilots wore
SR-71 suits (which are basically Gemini suits) because they might have to
eject at fairly high speed and altitude.  These are full pressure suits.
The ejection seats were removed once the shuttle was considered operational,
and the crews just wore jumpsuits (except for EVA, of course).  The "rescue
ball" was the closest that the non-EVA crew members got to having pressure
suits.  However, in the post-Challenger investigation it was noticed that
the Challenger crew might have survived if they had had parachutes, oxygen,
and some sort of pressure suit.  So they are now wearing partial-pressure
suits -- much lighter and more compact than full-pressure suits, but less
comfortable -- for launch (and descent?).
-- 
NASA is into artificial        |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
stupidity.  - Jerry Pournelle  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu