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JB
John Bull
@garius.bsky.social
He/Him. Author. Historian. Strategy streamer. Tech/Transport Strategist. Editor of @lonrec. Orient fan. Business: business@longformist.co.uk. The "Henry Kissinger of transport". Apparently. 😬😆
10.9k followers468 following10k posts
JBgarius.bsky.social

Like, I'm not joking. Here's an extract from a script I'm writing for a BBC show. Apollo 17 literally only went ahead because Roberta Pilkenton was an S-Rank Seamstress. They put her on a plane, the first time she'd ever been on one, and blitzed her to Florida to save the last lunar mission.

Throughout the space race, production of these suits sat with the almost entirely female cutters, seamstresses and assemblers at the International Latex Company. There, women like Hazel Fellows, Iona Allen and Francine Burris pioneered space suit manufacture.

In December 1972, the Apollo 17 lunar mission was saved by seamstress Roberta Pilkenton, when an accident at the launch site critically damaged one of the space suits mere hours before launch. Regarded as one of the best sewers at the company, Pilkenton was dispatched by emergency flight to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. She arrived at 4am with the materials necessary to carry out the repair in a high-security suitcase handcuffed to her wrist.

In a twenty hour race against the clock, Pilkington managed to fully repair the suit and prevent the mission’s cancellation.
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Jjoyceadams.bsky.social

Please tell me this is a new season of 13 Minutes to the Moon…. Also, a sewing machine & other artifacts from the sewists are on display in the new Space Race gallery at the National Air & Space Museum. It’s so cool!

0
IAiammrcollins.bsky.social

"Sew like the wind!" (20 points if you get that reference)

1
AWamandaweaver.bsky.social

There’s this too.

1
Aaeronaute.bsky.social

The suitcase of material handcuffed to her wrist is the sort of dramatic flourish I didn't expect in this context.

1
NPnwp.bsky.social

Sounds high brow but come on, admit it, it's QI... ;)

0
HFtopper.falkon.org.uk

Sewing equipment being transported like it's a nuclear football is sending me somewhat 😂

0
AAbachpropagate.bsky.social

Would NASA have swapped out the astronaut with a broken suit for his backup or were there only three suits made per mission?

1
JBgarius.bsky.social

Give me a a fucking show about the women who made space suits Netflix. Working class women, many of African-American origin, with years of experience making bras and female undergarments, just out there making the weird designs NASA blokes have come up with for space suits actually fucking work.

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JB
John Bull
@garius.bsky.social
He/Him. Author. Historian. Strategy streamer. Tech/Transport Strategist. Editor of @lonrec. Orient fan. Business: business@longformist.co.uk. The "Henry Kissinger of transport". Apparently. 😬😆
10.9k followers468 following10k posts