Glove, Left, AX1-L, Apollo, Prototype

This is a left glove of a pair belonging to an AX1-L spacesuit used during the Apollo program. ILC Industries manufactured these gloves in 1963 as an Apollo prototype. The AX1-L's design consisted of hard-angled suit segments rotating on aluminized nylon pressure sealing bearings to provide low-torque mobility.

AX1-L gloves were leather with sewn-on restraint webbing to bring about a more conformal shape and share the pressure load. The glove fit tightly at the wrist for limited wrist mobility and required unzipping a zipper to don or remove the glove. The gloves were attached to the suit with anodized aluminum disconnect rings-- always red for the right glove and blue for the left.

NASA transferred the gloves and the suit to the museum after the end of the Apollo program.