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Blue Dot 197: LUNAR OUTFITTERS: A Conversation With Space Suit Historian Bill Ayrey

Amazon

Dave once again delves into the Apollo Program 50 years ago with this in depth look at the iconic space suits that Neil Armstrong and his 11 fellow moonwalkers wore on the lunar surface. Bill Ayrey is tge author of the new book, Lunar Outfitters: Making The Apollo Spacesuit.

Bill worked for decades as a test engineer during the Space Shuttle era for ILC, the International Latex Corporation, and has served as a historian for them in liason with The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which curates the Apollo suits including Armstrong's.

Bill takes Dave on a fascinating journey through the development of the custom, mostly handmade suits that protected the Apollo astronauts.

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.