Mercury IVA

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Gordon Cooper in an IVA suit

Mercury IVA was a spacesuit that was used in the Mercury missions . It was originally developed for the US Navy by the BF Goodrich Company as a pressure suit for flights at high altitudes.

Development of the suit

The spacesuit was developed in the late 1950s and was not originally intended for space flights. In contrast to earlier models, this suit was particularly light and weighed just under 10 kg. The highest test was carried out at 34,670 m as part of the Strato-Lab project on May 4, 1961. Since later test aircraft, such as. B. the X-15 , were equipped with a pressurized cabin , there was no further development.

Use in the Mercury project

When NASA started the Mercury project in 1958 , they had to find the lightest possible spacesuit. The Mark IV met these criteria and was also relatively easy to adapt to the needs of space travel. The suit was then referred to as the Mark IVA.

These adjustments included:

  • No breathing mask for the astronaut, breathing took place entirely within the hermetically sealed suit.
  • The surface of the suit and the shoes were provided with a coating made of aluminum in order to be able to reflect external temperature radiation as effectively as possible.
  • Special gloves to operate the switches and buttons on the capsule.
  • A special connection for forwarding the biometric measurement data to the ground station.

Each astronaut had three suits that were fitted to his body. One was used in tests, the second was for the actual flight and the third was held as a reserve. A total of 36 suits were made.

The suit was never actually used in space, because the Mercury capsule was able to provide the necessary atmosphere for all missions. Only on the Mercury-Redstone 4 mission there were problems after the ditching , after the astronaut Virgil Grissom had to leave his capsule. Since he had already taken off his helmet and all connections to the oxygen supply, the suit slowly filled with water. After a short time, however, he could be picked up by a rescue helicopter. This scenario was not taken into account when developing the suit. On all later missions there was also a life jacket .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Kenneth S. Thomas & Harold J. McMann: US Spacesuits . 1st edition. Springer Praxis, Chichester, UK 2005, ISBN 0-387-27919-9 , pp. 31 .
  2. ↑ Kenneth S. Thomas & Harold J. McMann: US Spacesuits . 1st edition. Springer Praxis, Chichester, UK 2005, ISBN 0-387-27919-9 , pp. 348 .
  3. ↑ Kenneth S. Thomas & Harold J. McMann: US Spacesuits . 1st edition. Springer Praxis, Chichester, UK 2005, ISBN 0-387-27919-9 , pp. 32 .