ILC Dover still in the space business

When NASA astronaut Jack Fischer reaches the International Space Station on Thursday, he will begin a four-month journey on the orbiting laboratory conducting hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.

Fischer said he expects part of that work will involve stepping outside the space station. When he does, he will be wearing a space suit designed and manufactured in Delaware.

ILC Dover has supplied all the space suits for NASA since project Apollo and continues to design, test and build suits for current and future space exploration at its Frederica plant.

Fischer is one of many in a long line of astronauts who will or have depended on the suits made by ILC Dover.

The most famous is arguably Neil Armstrong, whose walk on the moon on July 20, 1969, is viewed as one of the biggest achievements in the history of manned space flight. More than 240,000 miles from the Earth, Armstrong stepped off the lunar landing module “Eagle” onto the surface of the moon and recited the famous words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Years later in 1999, Armstrong sent a letter to ILC Dover employees commending them on the craftsmanship of the suit he wore on his famous moonwalk and suits made for the entire Apollo program. That letter and others are on display in the ILC Dover museum.

“The ILC suit lived up to its expectations and performed remarkably well,” Armstrong wrote. “On this occasion, I send my thanks to those of you who worked on Apollo.”

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It wasn’t uncommon for astronauts scheduled for spacewalks or lunar landings to make their way to Frederica for suit fittings and to sign off on suit checks. Apollo XI astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who joined Armstrong on the moon’s surface to plant the U.S. flag, take photographs of the terrain and conduct experiments, said in a letter how impressed he was with ILC Dover.

“I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see and talk to the people who are actually assembling the suit that I hope may someday make it to the moon – I hope I’m inside it,” Aldrin said in a letter before the Apollo XI mission. “We’re all very confident in all the work you’re doing.”

William Ayrey, manager of quality test/inspection and company historian at the Frederica plant, said that ILC Dover has made more than 300 suits, including three for each astronaut – one for training, one for the mission and a backup. He said other developmental suits have been built. Many of those suits are on display.

“We beat the heck out of our suits to make sure they can meet the requirements and handle anything,” he said. “We are like the test track for space suits. If something is going to fail, we want it to fail here.”

Ayrey said that early in the development of space suits made for the Apollo program, the cost to design, engineer and build each custom-made suit was around $100,000. At the end of the program – Apollo XVII in December 1972 – the cost had reached $1 million per suit.

“Think of them as miniature spaceships because that is what they are,” Ayrey said. “They get in these space suits, and they do a spacewalk and it might last six hours. They do repair work and maintenance in these suits. It’s not something a robot can do.”

On the last Apollo flight, Ayrey said that astronaut Eugene Cernan brought back his lunar boots because of the historic nature of the mission. Ayrey said most of the suits worn to the moon are left there to make room for returning lunar rocks.

“He was the last man on the moon and wanted to make sure he brought them back to preserve the history of the moonwalks,” said Ayrey, who noted the cost of the Chromel-R material that lined each boot was $3,000 per yard in 1968. “We’ve littered the moon with materials like boots, backpacks and gloves from Frederica.”

A new frontier

Once the Apollo program came to an end, Ayrey said ILC Dover fell on hard times. But when the company won the Space Shuttle contract in 1976, things picked up.

“In the mid- to late '70s, things were dicey for us,” Ayrey said. “We were down to 25 people here at the end of the Apollo program. We were eventually able to bring those numbers up again.”

ILC Dover currently has about 350 employees in Frederica and about 25 in Houston, Texas.

Ayrey said it looks like the NASA plan is to keep the International Space Station operational until 2024, but there is some talk about it turning commercial as more companies look to get into the space business. That could bode well for ILC Dover.

“It is not unlikely to see someone like an Elon Musk take it over if it is determined that it still has a number of years left in it and that it could serve some purpose that would help further our exploration of space,” Ayrey said. “As long as the station is occupied, there will always be a need for the space suit.”

Ayrey said that up on the International Space Station right now, there are parts of space suits built by ILC Dover. He said they keep those parts on board so they can mix and match, depending on the size of the astronaut.

“You can put this suit together and take it apart to make it fit,” he said.

More than space suits

Ayrey said the company has continued to grow and diversify into a number of different product lines, including customized impact bags that helped the first rover land safely on Mars, and the suit that helped the StratEX team complete a record-breaking near-space dive via high-altitude balloon.

ILC has had a presence in the aerospace market for over 40 years with the production of its airship and aerostat large inflatable envelopes (blimps).

Their client base ranges from commercial companies for passenger and advertising airships to major aerospace contractors for surveillance (ISR) and heavy-lift operations.

Probably the most recognizable of the company’s blimps are those that circle above major sporting events, like the ones for Goodyear and Met Life.

“ILC is diversified in a lot of different businesses, not only the space suit industry,” Ayrey said. “We’re getting into more advanced products using high-tech engineering and inflatables.”

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One of the more notable endeavors being taken on by ILC Dover is flood protection. After Superstorm Sandy in New York City in 2012, company engineers started working on ways to prevent damage to critical infrastructure, including commercial buildings, transit systems and utilities.

ILC flood barrier systems are being installed by NYC Transit, with 24 subway stairwell covers already installed in areas susceptible to flooding.

“We have to stop the water from the top down,” said Alan George, technical sales specialist for the company. “They are like a big roll-out pool cover. They take only five minutes to deploy, so they can stop a lot of water from reaching the subway right away.”

Tests were recently concluded at the ILC Dover plant on a product called the “Resilient Tunnel Plug,” which is intended to plug rail, automotive or other tunnels from threats, including water.

George said the 21-day test just concluded in Frederica simulated plugging a subway tunnel for a long period of time. He said the plug – which is 16 feet in diameter and 32 feet long – inflates in 11 minutes, allowing an 11th-hour decision on when to deploy.

Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.