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I have been flying for a dozen years now starting
with the U-2’s and the US Air Force and

2
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then came over to NASA to fly the ER-2.

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We fly the ER-2 and the U-2 for that matter
so high that we are above Armstrong’s line

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which is roughly sixty-four thousand feet,
but if for some reason we lost that pressurization,

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lets say the canopy blew off, and we were
exposed to the atmosphere at that altitude,

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our blood would start to boil, our bodily
fluids would all start to boil, the saliva

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in our mouths would start to sizzle and boil
off and we would not last very long if that

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happened.

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And what the pressure suit is there for, is
to catch our bodies at roughly thirty-five

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thousand feet so if we lose all of the pressure
in the aircraft, the suit would actually expand

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like a balloon and become almost ridged and
we would be inside it at the equivalent of

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thirty-five thousand feet altitude.

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It is pretty stiff, I mean just the act of
reaching down to grab the flight controls,

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or to move the throttle takes a lot of effort
cause there’s a lot of force against the

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suit.

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There is a lot of maintenance into it.

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It’s a life support equipment.

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Everything is preflighted.

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We check the oxygen.

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We check the pressure.

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We check the regulator.

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We check the leak rate in the suit.

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Then after we put the pilot in the suit, we
go through the same procedures and check all

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of those parameters again.

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The philosophy is everything else can fail,
this can’t.

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The suit is made to give us just enough mobility
in the cockpit to come back down from altitude

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to more normal pressures and a safer zone
to come back and land.

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I have been fortunate.

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I have not had a loss in cabin pressure.

30
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I have friends that have and the suit saved
their lives.

31
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The techs that day that suited them up saved
their lives.

32
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I think everybody has a little bit of claustrophobia.

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It is usually when it is hot outside and I
have just climbed in the aircraft and I am

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out-breathing the capability of the little
portable oxygen units we have.

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And I find myself feeling like I’m suffocating.

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I have about 10 seconds every year where if
I wanna scream and get the helmet off and

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the suit off as quickly as I can.

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But I know how to power through that.

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We can drink in flight, and we all take water
and I take food.

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Not everyone takes food up, but I do.

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I take a lot of food with me.

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We connect the food to a food tube or to a
water bottle, put the tube through the hole

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and that points right at our mouth inside
the helmet.

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Keep in mind, when we are flying, this helmet
is closed up like that and remains closed

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so we can’t open it up to eat a chocolate
bar or whatever so everything pretty much

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has to be pureed or liquid.

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Getting used to flying in a space suit with
the helmet on took months.

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Dexterity of boxing gloves and a helmet where
you can’t scratch your face, you are sweating,

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it is hot.

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I can’t move at all in the cockpit.

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I have no room to move very much at all.

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My knees are hitting the instrument panel,
my helmet is hitting the canopy, my arms are

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hitting the sides of the cockpit.

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I love flying this plane!

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Sometimes I inflate the suit and just sit
there.