Armageddon blue NASA flight suit

[p51]

I’m quite surprised that I haven’t found anyone at the normal forums about costumes for this movie. While on my recent trip to Kennedy Space Center, I bought a nice flight suit at the visitor center gift shop, which was the same shade that NASA uses. I thought I could make a good Halloween costume out of it (all I have is old military uniforms and movie/TV stuff, I figured I should have something normal people can ID if I ever need a costume for some reason). I just ordered a Velcro nametape patch for the nameplate, a “Space Center Roughnecks” and a STS-98 “Freedom” X-71 patch online and found the small NASA patch I already had in my collection (Had this one since I was about 12. Never throw a good patch away).
These are the patches I have on the way. I also have a full set of patches that would correct for STS-135 (the final Shuttle mission) and I’m waffling between the two. I might as well do it up Roughneck fashion. Heck, most people wouldn’t realize they weren’t normal launch patches anyway as every crew pretty much had their own arrangement anyway. Here are the patches I have on the way, though: http://scifipatch.bizland.com/ARM02.jpgand http://scifipatch.bizland.com/ARM01.jpg
Has anyone else here ever done this? FYI, this is the flight suit I’m using, good luck finding another maker with the same color: Alpha Industries Adult NASA Astronaut Flight Suit (Alpha Industries CFN36502C1), NASA Flight Suits

 

[p51]

Okay, I have all the patches and the nametape just got ordered (I went with a USAF one as the USAF and NASA crews all wore the same blue suits at various times). Just waiting for the flightsuit to arrive at this point.

 

[p51]

Just an FYI, if you ever order a flightsuit from Alpha, be sure you order the next size up. They're uber tight! I ordered an XL one and the waist only lets out to maybe 34 inches. That ain't XL in most people's book! I was able to squeeze into it just barely but no way I could wear the thing. So I'm stuck paying almost $30 shipping both ways to get the right one even though it wasn't really the size advertised. I hate deals like this, I never understand why the buyer has to pay shipping when the ordered item isn't what it claims to be...
So now I'm back to square one. i have all the patches, just waiting for the flightsuit to sew them to.

 

[p51]

Finally got everything together, just need to get some pics of me wearing it eventually:

 

[MandalShArK]

As far as im aware, these are the guys who make the suits for NASA, (family friend who flys for NASA Put us in touch with them.

Flight Suits - Military & Pilot Flight Suits, Tactical Jumpsuits, Law Enforcement & EMT Uniforms

 

[p51]

As far as im aware, these are the guys who make the suits for NASA, (family friend who flys for NASA Put us in touch with them.
Flight Suits - Military & Pilot Flight Suits, Tactical Jumpsuits, Law Enforcement & EMT Uniforms

They’re the same type but NASA gets them through GSA supply channels, so in the end they’re pretty much the same thing. Royal Blue Nomex flight suits are used by the military as well, but rarely. And they’re NOT cheap. Expect to pay about 200-300 for a new one. You can sometimes find used ones but they’re usually ragged out (and have rips or fades from where the patches were sewn to them). They can pop up on eBay from time to time but usually for midget sizes. The Alpha Industries one isn’t a perfect copy but it has three good points. It’s much cheaper than a new Nomex one, it’s brand new and it’s cotton. If you’ve ever worn a Nomex flight suit for any length of time, you know how hot that they can get (I’ve worn them while flying in different aircraft in the past and they do NOT breathe at all). I roasted once inside a WW2 fighter plane in Florida on a formation flight and I swore I’d never wear one again unless I was in the air:

One thing that gets me about the movie is that the way they configured the flight suits isn’t correct for NASA (I know, it’s only a movie). The shoulder patches they made for everyone all say “Space Center”and not Kennedy Space center, even though they had NASA approval and filmed there. The nameplates aren’t correct either. Military crew such as COL Sharp wouldn’t normally have their rank on their nameplates. The only indication you normally have that someone is military is their wings (and that’s usually for only the pilots, the mission specialists wear their own wings, even if they hold military pilot wings normally) and the color on the nameplate. Usually USAF pilots have the lettering done in silver thread to match their wings and the Navy pilots have yellow to match theirs. I found a vendor who makes astronaut nameplates with military wings only so that’s what I did (making myself a backup pilot for the shuttle ‘Freedom’ on Sharp’s shuttle, I guess?)
The Roughnecks are all civilians yet they are wearing USAF astronaut wings which isn’t correct at all. I know that Will Patton’s character of “Chick” Chappel was described as a “former Air Force Commando” by Billy Bob Thornton’s character, but even then it would be a stretch for them to award military wings to him. Civilian Mission Specialist wings look like this:

What I truly wish I’d gotten photos of was the real life NASA employee who I saw walking into the Johnson Space Center in Houston several years back, who was wearing what I assume was a filming crew jacket from the movie with the fake mission patches on it. I have read that several were given to people who’d help out from NASA. Some tourist came up to him and asked, “Are you a real astronaut?” Without missing a step, he pointed to his fake STS-98 ‘Freedom’ patch and said, “Ma’am, I was THERE,” and walked on. She didn’t have a clue and I tried to choke back the laughter.

 

[p51]

Okay, I got a sunny day and a photo that doesn't show an orbiter. I've seen worse photoshop attempts...

 

[MandalShArK]

Yeah Nomex's get a tad warm, but being clad in Body armor and various Assault gear on top of it does not help the matter either..still its nomex for a reason..

Great looking suit by the way chap.. showed this to my old man and its wet his appetite...Now if only you could get the Space cowboys mission patch, that would be a bit more fitting for him..

 

[p51]

Yeah Nomex's get a tad warm, but being clad in Body armor and various Assault gear on top of it does not help the matter either..still its nomex for a reason..

Great looking suit by the way chap.. showed this to my old man and its wet his appetite...Now if only you could get the Space cowboys mission patch, that would be a bit more fitting for him..

Being a former US Army officer, I know all too well the ‘joys’ of wearing body armor. I don’t miss that AT ALL.
I have all but given up on finding the mission patch for “Space Cowboys”. If you watch the film you can see the mission patch says, “Horizon” on it and I guess they changed the name of the shuttle in mid production? Otherwise that makes no sense as Horizon was the shuttle name on the simulator. As for your idea for an older person with a “Team Daedalus” outfit, my Dad would be perfect for that as well. He’s in his mid-70s, is quite tall and people could see him as a retired test pilot (although nothing could be further from his real background). I could easily make him a A-2 jacket copy just like the film ones (I’ve painted plenty of them for WW2 re-enactors and airplane owners over the years).

 

[joeranger]

Whoa! How did I miss this thread? Another Advanced Crew Escape Suit costume.

I did Pumpkin.

http://www.therpf.com/f24/armageddon-style-flight-suit-105105/

 

[TheBryanScout]

Somebody apparently made Rockhound's suit. It's interesting how they used an earlier Space Camp flight suit. I wonder where they got their wings made up?

 

[p51]

Either a Space Camp suit or one of the early Avirex ones they used to make.

Somebody apparently made Rockhound's suit. It's interesting how they used an earlier Space Camp flight suit. I wonder where they got their wings made up?

It's the wrong pattern as in the movie, they all had USAF wings, which is very wrong. But if you gotta have that type, you can get them here: https://www.nametags4u.com/category/?cid=9
I got my mission specialist wings custom made for me, and this is all from real NASA contractors (patches by AB emblem and the suit from government stocks, though they now use Gibson and Barnes stuff):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/NASA Jackets/taggage_zps5b9eb45e.jpg

 

[lono68]

I know that this is a pretty old thread, but I just joined the RPF and was looking up other NASA enthusiast who were making their own jackets or suits from Apollo to Shuttle era and I saw your question/comment regarding MS wings name plates.

Several years ago, I came across a obscure website in the UK that sells patches as well as cloth name plates. The business is called Stewart Aviation. They do alot of the local stuff for the local RAF and UK military, but they have a side or sister site called Stuart Emblems and this is where is found the NASA Mission Specialist Name Plate.
First off, here's the link: http://stewart-emblems.com/nb/

Screen copy from the site.
AST ASTX

I was skeptical at first, but I ordered my wings. I ordered 4 MS wings. 2 in gold and 2 in silver. They will make them with any writing on them that you wanted printed. And they can be ordered with or without Velcro.

Communication with them is really good as far as completing your order. They do accept credit cards and the conversion from dollars to British Pounds is fair and at current exchange rates. I don't remember what I paid for mine along with shipping. but they did arrive fairly quickly all the way to Hawaii where I live.

It definitely adds to the realism especially with a NASA Shuttle jacket (royal blue) or ACES suit (Pumpkin suit).

Check them out and see if this can help you out. Not sure if many people who doe costuming know about this, since I was disappointed with the scarcity of local and national procurement of the MS wings. I actually like the design alot better than the military style (unless your going for a military astronaut road).