From the Earth to the Moon
From the Earth to the Moon
On July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Grumman made Lunar Module, wearing a spacesuit sewn together by seamstresses from Playtex. The famous footprints left on the moon were left by silicone rubber developed by GE. The watch on the wrist of Buzz Aldrin when he first stepped foot on the moon was made by Omega. The cameras they used to capture the historical photos were modified Hasselblad’s. If you haven’t noticed, what I am trying to illustrate, its that the journey from the earth to the moon wasn’t a singular accomplishment by NASA. Most people assume everything that went to the moon or goes into space is purpose built by NASA. They assume that NASA has laboratories and factories of their own that produce and still produce everything that goes into space. For the most part this is not the case. NASA since its inception has always farmed out problems they couldn’t solve to universities all over the country, and fabrication to a wide array of trusted contractors that could handle the job. These “behind the scenes” contractors and companies are what makes digging into the history of NASA very interesting.
The Spacesuit
If you want to take a deep dive into an incredibly esoteric and fascinating book I recommend "Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo" by Nicholas de Monchaux. It chronicles the history of spacesuits, leading to the development of the iconic A7L Lunar spacesuit. The suit was designed and built by ILC better known as Playtex. You read that correctly, the spacesuit worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and every single Apollo astronaut was made by a bra company. When NASA began looking for companies to develop their spacesuit in 1961, members at Playtex’s industrial arm knew they could develop a suit better than anyone else. With their experience of developing, making, and sewing new and unique materials they were up for the challenge. They developed a bellow-shaped joint for the arms that was different from any other submitted design and it intrigued NASA. Their suit design had the ability to flex the elbows, knees, wrists, ankles, and shoulders while also maintaining constant air pressure, and kept the wearer mobile enough to bend over, pick up objects, and climb ladders. The design Playtex submitted was far and away better than anything submitted by other competing companies. This combined with a team of seamstresses who already had the experience and knowledge to undertake such a vitally important job, won them the contract. If a suit was sewn incorrectly, and the seams weren’t strong enough the suit would decompress and kill its wearer in less than 30 seconds. This stress led to several nervous breakdowns from some of the seamstresses, the long hours combined with knowing one false stitch, or one lost pin could lead to a painful death for its wearer. NASA’s aggressive quality control most likely didn’t help matters either. Playtex’s relationship with NASA was certainly a roller coaster, they even lost the contract for a short period. But when other companies couldn’t produce, they were reinstated.
The Saturn V
The Saturn V was an enormous rocket in every way possible. It was three hundred and sixty three feet tall, and it weighed over six and half million pounds. It was capable of launching three hundred and ten thousand pounds into low earth orbit. In 1969 it cost $185 million dollars per launch. Adjusted for inflation thats $1.6 billion dollars per launch. The lead contractors that built the rocket were Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas, and IBM. Three of the four companies were extremely large aircraft manufacturers back in the 1960’s, many of them actually still exist today in some way shape or form. The aircraft companies were each assigned a specific part of the rocket and were mostly responsible for the construction of each stage. Much of the research and the design for each stage were done in conjunction with NASA engineers and the engineers of each company. However the most interesting company involved in the development of the Saturn V was IBM.
IBM was responsible for the development of the Saturn Instrument Unit. This was a ring shaped computer that sat on top of the third stage of the Saturn V. The Instrument Unit contained the guidance system for the Saturn V rocket. Some the components contained within the Instrument Unit were a digital computer, analog flight control computer, emergency detection system, inertial guidance platform, control accelerometers and control rate gyros. At the time it was the most compact and advanced computer ever produced. A launch program was set into the computer and from liftoff the computer would run through its commands during launch such as throttle, staging, and fuel management. The unit could detect if the rockets angle was off by centimeters during launch and would direct the engines and gimbals to adjust the rockets course, as well as detect possible malfunctions and anomalies to warn NASA and the astronauts of danger. Without this computer ring the Saturn V wouldn’t have gotten off the ground let alone fly straight. The components developed for this singular piece of hardware would lead to advancements in microprocessors and digital computing. The technology would be used in aviation to increase safety and guidance for commercial airlines. The development and advancements made to create the Saturn Instruments Unit, essentially kickstarted the computer age.
There is a good chance that I will dive deeper and spend a week talking about the moon missions alone. There is so much more history and background stories, it is impossible to discuss it all in a day. What I wanted to do today was highlight that getting to the moon wasn’t accomplished by one entity. Scores of contractors and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people were responsible for “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” In the links below are lists of all the companies and contractors, some of them might not exist today without their opportunity to work on the Saturn V and Apollo missions. Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, Motorola, Reynolds (Aluminum Foil), Snap Tite, Texas Instruments, just to name a few.
Links:
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/app-e.htm
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/app-f.html
