The Spacesuits
Engineering Archive · thespacesuits.com
THE
SUIT
ARCHIVE
Seventy years of pressure garment engineering across **US, Soviet, Russian** and incoming **Chinese** programs. Every variant. Every subsystem. Every failure. Primary sources—not Wikipedia summaries.
37+
Variants
16
Subsystems
16+
Failures
70yr
History
_US_ Mercury IVA · X-15 · Gemini G3C · G4C · G5C · Apollo A7L · A7LB · Skylab · EMU · ACES · Enhanced EMU · xEMU · AxEMU _SOVIET/RU_ SK-1 · SK-2 · BERKUT · YASTREB · KRECHET · SOKOL-K · SOKOL-KV-2 · ORLAN-D · ORLAN-DM · ORLAN-DMA · ORLAN-M · ORLAN-MK · STRIZH _CHINA_ Shenzhou IVA · Haiying · Feitian Gen-1 · Feitian Gen-2 · Feitian D/E · Wangyu Lunar Suit _EUROPE/ESA_ EVA Suit 2000 · EuroSuit IVA · Hermes EVA Concept _US_ Mercury IVA · X-15 · Gemini G3C · G4C · G5C · Apollo A7L · A7LB · Skylab · EMU · ACES · Enhanced EMU · xEMU · AxEMU _SOVIET/RU_ SK-1 · SK-2 · BERKUT · YASTREB · KRECHET · SOKOL-K · SOKOL-KV-2 · ORLAN-D · ORLAN-DM · ORLAN-DMA · ORLAN-M · ORLAN-MK · STRIZH _CHINA_ Shenzhou IVA · Haiying · Feitian Gen-1 · Feitian Gen-2 · Feitian D/E · Wangyu Lunar Suit _EUROPE/ESA_ EVA Suit 2000 · EuroSuit IVA · Hermes EVA Concept
PROTO-001 Prototype EXPERIMENTAL
!Image 1: Mk II Model O spacesuit photograph
Mk II Model O
USAF · B.F. Goodrich
1956
Pressure
TBD
System mass
TBD
Life support
Not publicly documented
EVA duration
N/A
"Established B.F. Goodrich as the lead US full-pressure suit contractor before Mercury existed"
View Full Archive → PROTO-002 Prototype EXPERIMENTAL
!Image 2: Mk II Model R spacesuit photograph
Mk II Model R
USAF · B.F. Goodrich
1956
Pressure
TBD
System mass
TBD
Life support
Not publicly documented
EVA duration
N/A
"Parallel development track alongside Model O testing different mobility solutions"
View Full Archive → PROTO-003 Prototype EXPERIMENTAL
!Image 3: Mk IV Arrowhead spacesuit photograph
Mk IV Arrowhead
US Navy · B.F. Goodrich
late 1950s
Pressure
TBD
System mass
TBD
Life support
Not publicly documented
EVA duration
N/A
"Naval and NASA pressure suit research tracks cross-pollinated significantly in this era"
View Full Archive → PROTO-005 Prototype EXPERIMENTAL
!Image 4: Navy Mark IV spacesuit photograph
Navy Mark IV
US Navy · B.F. Goodrich
1959
Pressure
TBD
System mass
TBD
Life support
Not publicly documented
EVA duration
N/A
"The most direct production line from naval aviation pressure suits to spaceflight hardware"
View Full Archive → PROTO-004 Prototype EXPERIMENTAL
!Image 5: Mk IV Suit spacesuit photograph
Mk IV Suit
US Navy · B.F. Goodrich
1960s
Pressure
TBD
System mass
TBD
Life support
Not publicly documented
EVA duration
N/A
"Naval pressure suit lineage running parallel to NASA programs"
View Full Archive → VAR-001 IVA
!Image 6: Mercury IVA spacesuit photograph
Mercury IVA
NASA · B.F. Goodrich
1959–1963
Pressure
3.7 psi / 25.5 kPa
System mass
22 lb
Life support
Vehicle provided
EVA duration
N/A
"Even a simple IVA suit needs water survival and cockpit visibility contingencies"
// Engineering Deep-Dive
WHY GLOVES
KEPT KILLING
EVERY MISSION
Across 70 years and three space programs, the same subsystem remained the single most persistent mission limiter: the glove. Hand fatigue in Gemini IV made America's first EVA nearly catastrophic. Cold-object handling plagued Apollo. Pre-Phase VI EMU glove injuries—numbness, bladder bunching, palm-bar wear-through into hand—drove formal NASA injury surveillance in the 1990s.
The archive documents **12 distinct glove development lines** across US and Soviet programs. Not what was built—but why each iteration failed to solve the fundamental physics of dexterity under 3.7–5.8 psi. The Russian BERKUT glove of 1965 and the ISS Phase VI of 2002 share the same core failure: torque and thermal performance trade against each other at the finger joint level.
Rear Entry
Why Soviets Chose Rear-Entry Architecture
KRECHET-94 and the Orlan family both use rear-entry hard upper torso. Not accidental — it solved donning alone on a lunar surface without ground crew. Traced from 1967 through modern suitport concepts.
Critical Failure
EVA-23: Helmet Water Intrusion
2013. ISS. Parmitano's helmet filled with water. Vision impaired, comms degraded, breathing compromised. Water separator blockage in the enhanced EMU's cooling loop. Potentially lethal. Full forensic breakdown here.
Coming Soon
China Feitian Workbook
Third major space power's EVA program documented in the same structured engineering format as US and Soviet workbooks. Feitian EVA suit subsystem decomposition and roadmap. Imminent.
ISS Enhanced EMU — EVA-23
Life support / water loop
Water entered Luca Parmitano's helmet during EVA — vision impaired, comms degraded, breathing compromised
→ Cooling-water management is a primary safety-critical function, not a nuisance issue. Contamination tolerance must be designed in from day one
Enhanced EMU Sustainment
Program / industrial base
Aging suits, obsolescence, contractor quality issues, supply-chain weaknesses — OIG 2025 flagged as mission risk
→ Industrial-base fragility becomes a technical failure mode in long-lived fleets. Supplier resilience must be a first-class design and program requirement
xEMU Program
Mass / program integration
Suit mass exceeded or stressed downstream lander allocations; requirements breadth and subsystem mass growth degraded feasibility
→ Exploration programs need firm mass control and stable mission assumptions before subsystem elaboration begins. Lock the budget model early
Pure oxygen atmosphere
Atmosphere / materials
High-pressure pure oxygen atmosphere drastically increased flammability and toxicity consequences
→ Atmosphere, materials, and operations must be treated as a single integrated safety system from day one
37 Variants Documented
16 Subsystems Analyzed
16 Failure Cases Logged
70yr Timeline Coverage
4 Nations — US · Soviet · China · ESA
// Why This Archive Exists
ENGINEERED HERE.
NOT
GENERATED.
Sixty years of pressure garment failures, near-misses and hard lessons — documented from primary sources. NASA technical reports, OIG audits, Zvezda records. The kind of archive that takes months to build and seconds to trust.