Advanced Crew Escape Suit
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The Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), or "pumpkin suit", is a full pressure suit that Space Shuttle crews began wearing after STS-65, for the ascent and entry portions of flight. The suit is a direct descendant of the U.S. Air Force high-altitude pressure suits worn by the two-man crews of the SR-71 Blackbird, pilots of the U-2 and X-15, and Gemini pilot-astronauts, and the Launch Entry Suits (LES) worn by NASA astronauts starting on the STS-26 flight, the first flight after the Challenger disaster. The suit is manufactured by the David Clark Company of Worcester, Massachusetts. Cosmetically the suit is very similar to the LES. ACES was first used in 1994.
ACES without parachute and survival equipment (Worn by Nicholas Patrick)
Crew inside Space Shuttle mock-up during training (Pictured (L to R): Doug Hurley, Sandra Magnus, and Rex Walheim)
ACES being used by crew during Orion mock-up trials (Pictured (L to R): Cady Coleman and Ricky Arnold)
Nomex
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Nomex is a flame-resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967.
A firefighter in Toronto, Canada wears a Nomex hood in 2007.