We're putting the finishing touches on the design and text for
our upcoming exhibition "Suited for Space," launching in March
2011. It's been quite a wild (and fascinating) trip as we've
examined spacesuits with National Air and Space Museum curators
and photographers who have spent decades sorting and cataloguing
this and that piece of space gear. Here are a couple of tidbits
we learned from them that might surprise you: 1. Spacesuits are
fragile, not necessarily because of space exposure but because
of what they're made of--natural and man-made materials that are
unstable when integrated or juxtaposed. They just don't play
nice together. 2. A rubber bladder is the innermost portion of a
spacesuit. It holds air in and keeps the wearer at constant air
pressure, about 3 pounds of pressure per square inch over the
body, similar to the Earth's own atmosphere. 3. Nylon, developed
by the DuPont company, is a petroleum-based compound and can
withstand intense pressure. It's a key component in spacesuits,
roping, pa