Our June Thought Leader Series, presented by The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), features spacesuits. Learn about the suits astronauts wear when they step out into the cosmos for a spacewalk.
ABOUT THE PANEL
Panelists include astronaut Nicole Stott, ILC Dover fellow David Graziosi, and Amy Ross, NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) space suit engineer.
Stott is a senior technical advisor for ILC Dover and a veteran of two spaceflights. She logged 104 days living and working in space as a crewmember on both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle. Stott was just the 10th woman to perform a spacewalk. She also flew the robotic arm to capture the first H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), worked with her international crew in support of the multi-disciplinary science onboard the orbiting laboratory, and painted a watercolor.
Graziosi is a fellow at the ILC Dover Houston operation. He has 30 years of experience in the development of spacesuits and spacesuit components, including Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Enhancements, Phase VI Extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuit gloves, Mark III Suit Enhancements, all versions of the I-Suit Advanced Planetary EVA suits, several recent launch and entry (LEA) spacesuits, StratEx space dive suit, and NASA’s Z-1 and Z-2 spacesuits. Graziosi holds three US patents that include spacesuit technology and inflatable wing structures.
Ross is a space suit engineer in the Crew and Thermal Systems Division at JSC. She joined NASA in 1996. Her current role is in rotation as the assistant chief engineer for the International Space Station Program. She has experience working on the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) Pressure Garment Subsystem (PGS), specifically focusing on design, fabrication, qualification testing, and flight hardware delivery. She also worked on the Z-2 prototype surface exploration EVA spacesuit development and testing, including the first simulated weightless environment (in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory) of a surface EVA suit since 1990.
