The Eagle Has Landed: ILC Dover’s Development of the Apollo Spacesuit

Date Posted: Thursday, June 26th, 2014

With the 45^th anniversary of America’s landing on the moon taking place in July, the Delaware Public Archives will honor this historic event by hosting a program on Saturday, July 5, 10:30 a.m. about the development of the early space suit at International Latex Corporation (ILC). This program, presented by Bill Ayrey, will explain the Apollo space suit and the impact that it had on the success of the Apollo program which culminated with man’s landing on the moon. In addition to discussing the Apollo space suit, Mr. Ayrey will describe the development of the Space Shuttle and Space Station space suits. The presentation will also include information about ILC Dover’s creation of the airbags that landed the rovers on Mars.

Employed at ILC since 1977, Ayrey is the quality test laboratory manager and company historian for ILC Dover, located in Frederica, Delaware. As the laboratory manager, he is responsible for testing advanced materials for many product lines. Mr. Ayrey oversees the manned testing of the space suits and the testing of all space suit parts before delivery to NASA. He has provided training to Smithsonian docents on the details of the space suits in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (NASM) collection. Ayrey will also provide assistance as NASM forms a working group to determine the best practice for displaying Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 suit in 2017.

The program is free to the public and will last approximately one hour.  No reservations are required.  For more information, contact Tom Summers (302) 744-5047 or e-mail thomas.summers@delaware.gov.

 

Related Topics:  Apollo Spacesuit, industry, latex