Friday, April 13, 2012

Orbital Outfitters, Jeff Feige

They make space suites.  They are providing a service and are betting that New Space will be successful.  They were founded in 2006.  They have several customers, including: NASA, XCOR and SpaceX.
What does the suit need to do?  For example: Hold pressure, but what pressure.  Or allow movement under pressure, but how much is really “enough”?  What does it mean to integrate with the vehicle?  They work with each customer and each customer has a different set of answers.
Jeff encouraged people not to wait until the last minute.  There is no one suite which fits all rockets.
Soyuz 11 had trouble in 1971.  The crew might have survived if they had suites.  It is good if the suite allows mobility.
They also build whole vehicle mockups. 
They have recently acquired an enormous mill and are looking for jobs to keep it busy.

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