Pressure Suit, Apollo, AX-1L, Cover Layer, Developmental

This garment is the cover layer constructed to be part of a heavily modified SPD-143 pressure suit. ILC Industries made this pressure suit as part of their entry to compete to build the spacesuit for the Apollo programs. Modifications of the SPD-143 were undertaken to test the feasibility of attaching rubber/neoprene convolute, air hose connectors and to work out the various methods of restraint lacing. This cover layer is without the integrated boots of later suits. It shows signs of lacing development, and is constructed of the same materials used in the later Apollo spacesuits. This suit is a very important example of the process by which NASA and the spacesuit manufacturer arrived at the final spacesuit configuration.

The donor of the coverlayer is unknown. NASA may have transferred it to the Museum with other components of the SPD-143 competition suit.