The HabForum

See explanation on the wings in the wing thread. As for the suit that is an early one for sure. I have that Space Camp Patch in my collection but have never gotten the red space center patch still looking for one.

Boomerang wrote:I have that Space Camp Patch in my collection but have never gotten the red space center patch still looking for one.

Thats the one. I have an earlier Alabama Space and Rocket Center patch that i've seen used in a few space camp pictures but never on a flight suit. I've seen some early space camp photos where younger camper were wearing a red jacket or sweat shirt with it on there but don't know anything about it.

Hey P51 camper, where you get some of the space center items you collect? Thanks have a great day. Just interesting on what you collect.

Steve wrote:Hey P51 camper, where you get some of the space center items you collect? Thanks have a great day. Just interesting on what you collect.

I've found them various places. The most recent early flight suit I got off eBay (I was surprised how little I got it for), the rest have turned up either at antique shops in the Puget Sound area and at military/aviation collectible shows. For a while, I was running into a Space Camp something at every show I went to.

Here are some interesting suits from the early days, as shown in the book, Your Future In Space:







One of those orange jackets would be a truly rare find indeed!

Great images, I didn't realize they ever used the black square SC camp along with the round "movie-looking" one at the same time!
I found that book you showed on amazon for 4 bucks total with postage, just ordered one just to thumb through it.

The jackrts in the one above are the ones i was referring to above. The white space center patch is the one i was talking about on the jacket.

As for the flight suit i believe the two suits above are the same suits but the top one has been customised by the camper. Ihave this same book and it appears to be around 1986 and the period where camp was transitioning from therectangle camp patch to the round one. The book still shoes the original training center and only regers to 2 programs with a new advanced program in the works.

I dont think the two were used together oficialy i think that is somrones alteration to their personal suit along with her other patches

Funy how there are no nametags anywhere. Did campers even wear them back in the day?

Look in the second picture, they're wearing clip-on photo laminates

Hotdog wrote:Look in the second picture, they're wearing clip-on photo laminates

No, I meant the military-style cloth/leather ones with velcro backings...

When I was there in '89, you could get one with your name printed up on the spot in the gift shop, with or without wings above the name. I still have mine!

I remember seeing stuff over the years referring to campers being issued a flight suit for the week that they would have to return. This is still done for the Advanced Space academy and Aviation Challenge Mach 3 programs but i have gotten the impression it was once done for other programs. If so these may be issued flight suits since campers didnt buyt them they wouldnt have the flight suit name tag. Just my guess

I just scored a cheap copy of "Your Future In Space" off amazon and have been looking at the suits. I need to scan a few of the pages because one clearly shows, "US Space Camp" printed scross the back.

Does anyone know if this was a SC jacket? The NASA patch sure looks like a camp version...

I've never seen a jacket like that at Space Camp. The NASA patch is the original "meatball" from the 1960s. Space Camp has used that same patch on the sleeves of their flightsuits in recent years. The shuttle patch looks like an early version. I would date it from the early 80s, but not sure of the source. Appears aftermarket and not NASA issue...

Now, check out the comparison. This is a CWU-73P Nomex flightsuit, the real deal from our favorite space agency!

And yes, it fits me very well!

And having just got my 30th anniversary SC patch, this is the final version of my camp flightsuit:

Spotted on eBay recently, is this something they sell at SC or was it put together by someone?

I'm temtped to make a grab for it, but I need another flight jacket like a need an extra hole in my head. Collecting flight gear is a sickness, I tells ya, look what I just put together with some patches I snagged from the Dryden Flight Research Center:

They sell a blue jacket very similar to that in the gift shop, but I didn't take a close enough look at it to remember the exact details. It's very likely it's the same jacket though.