When NASA sent Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon, it put the best of American science and engineering to the test. As part of the Apollo program, experts from Boeing, North American Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas were all called on for their expertise, as were craftspeople from American bra manufacturer Playtex.
Armstrong and Aldrin might have been the first men to set foot on the Moon, but their journey there required all kinds of world firsts from engineers on the ground. Chief among those tasks was designing the first space suit that could sustain life on a natural satellite.
Designers were required to come up with a suit that could create a tiny atmosphere for their inhabitants so they could remain stable (and alive) when exploring the Moon. The suits also had to be robust enough to survive on the Moon’s surface and flexible enough so that astronauts could still walk around with ease, reports Fast Company. That’s where Playtex came in:
Astronauts had to be able to move with almost the same freedom, flexibility, and nimbleness that they would on Earth. They had to be able to climb, bend over, twist and look around, and most difficult of all, move their arms and hands so they could get anything done on the surface of the Moon or while spacewalking. The gloves, said one official, should allow an astronaut to pick up a dime.
It’s easy enough to make a tank-like suit that will protect a person from the rigors of space. But making a suit that does that, and also moves with something like grace and ease—that turned out to be brutally difficult.
Designers from the company that manufactured Playtex bras took six weeks to design a concept suit that comprised 21 different layers, each with a specific life-supporting purpose, explained the Smithsonian Magazine in a recent blog post.
The most important advancement that Playtex came up with, however, was the way it joined all the parts of the suite together - such as the arms, legs and other movable components:
A division of the company that manufactured Playtex bras and girdles, ILC had engineers who understood a thing or two about rubber garments. They invented a bellowslike joint called a convolute out of neoprene reinforced with nylon tricot that allowed an astronaut to bend at the shoulders, elbows, knees, hips and ankles with relatively little effort. Steel aircraft cables were used throughout the suit to absorb tension forces and help maintain its shape under pressure.
In tests of space suits submitted by Playtex and two other contractors, the Playtex suite came out on top. Alternative options faced issues that saw them expand when the suits were pressurized and another had its helmet blow off during testing, adds Fast Company. Not what you want while taking the first photos on the Moon.
As such, NASA opted for the Playtex design, which even ended up using fabrics like nylon tricot that are traditionally used in bras as well. The decision proved to be a good one, and the space suits served all 12 Americans who have walked on the Moon. In fact, the company is still responsible for producing NASA’s space suits to this day.