NASA Finds Suits For '60s Space Spies

By Roland Piquepaille

In a room that was locked for more than thirty years at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA recently found suits for space spies. The long-forgotten training suits were in good shape, not even eaten by rodents. These suits should have been worn by fourteen astronauts participating in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. The goal of this program, initiated during the Cold War era, was to put a manned reconnaissance station in space. The U.S. Air Force wanted to send two men in a Gemini capsule for 40 days to look over U.S. enemies. But when the program was abandoned in 1969, the suits were lost -- for 35 years. Read more...

Here is the story as told by NASA.

Two security officers were doing a check of a facility known as the Launch Complex 5/6 museum. NASA Special Agent Dann E. Oakland and Security Manager Henry Butler, of the company that oversees the museum, Delaware North Parks and Resorts, discovered a locked room -- and they had no key.

They eventually were able to unlock the door using a master key. With no power, the room had evidently not been accessed by people in many years. The officers used flashlights to explore the room and make their noteworthy find.

But Oakland and Butler weren't the first visitors. Rodents had clearly explored the room over the years. Still, two blue spacesuits were "complete and in remarkable shape," according to the suits' manufacturer, who examined them.

The NASA press release shows a picture of the spacesuit found in 2005. But here is another picture of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Suit, dating from 1968 and shown at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (Credit: U.S. Air Force).

"The Manned Orbiting Laboratory program (MOL, 1963-69) was a U.S. Air Force program for studying long-duration spaceflight. This model MH-7 training suit, produced by United Aircraft's Hamilton Standard Division, was a durable, cost-effective tool for preparing USAF astronauts for MOL missions in more advanced suits. MOL was to use USAF-modified NASA Gemini spacecraft to put two crewmen in a space station for up to a month."

The manufacturer of the suits, Hamilton Sundstrand (HS), who declared that the recently found spacesuits were in good shape, is still maintaining a site about the MOL Suit Program. Here is a short excerpt about this specific spacesuit.

"In pursuit of the MOL space suit contract, HS developed, fabricated, and evaluated seven suit designs in 18 months. HS won the MOL suit competition at Wright Paterson Air Force Base in January of 1967. Under the MOL suit contract, HS delivered 22 suits between September 1967 and July 1969. This effort culminated with the flight MH-8 (MOL-Hamilton Standard, 8th suit design) configuration. The MH-8 Emergency Oxygen System was a strap-on assembly located on the front of the right upper leg that offered 10 minutes of backup life support." (Image credit: Hamilton Sundstrand)

 

 

If you're interested by this dead MOL program, here is a site with an exhaustive history of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. On the left is a rendering of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory in space idf it had be launched (Credit: U.S. Air Force).

In his introduction, Steven R. Strom writes: "In the mid to late '60s, an ambitious project to launch an orbital space laboratory for science and surveillance came to dominate life at Aerospace."

 

Finally, if you're interested by technological details as well by historical ones, you should read this page from Encyclopedia Astronautica. You'll discover that two astronauts embarked for a surveillance mission of 40 days should have shared a volume of 11.30 m3. Here are some details about the mission.

The MOL Mission Module took up most of the spacecraft. It had a length of 11.24 m and was divided into two major bays, the forward section 4.42 m long, and the aft section 6.82 m long. The military experiments it would carry remain classified even 25 years later. On most missions it is believed that the KH-10 optical surveillance system would be carried. This consisted of a telescope with a 1.8 m diameter mirror. This was said to be capable of a 4-inch theoretical ground resolution, 9 inch effective. Film would have been returned in four re-entry capsules during the course of the mission.

I'm wondering how many other treasures are still hidden in other space centers.

Sources: NASA Press Release, June 2, 2005; and various websites

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