
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In the Venn diagram of life, it’s hard to imagine what spacecraft and women’s underwear might have in common. And that’s probably what NASA engineers thought back in 1962 when they asked a handful of companies to design a spacesuit that would keep a man alive and mobile on the moon. Nobody counted on the International Latex Corporation, whose commercial brand, Playtex, was known for its bras and girdles. But lingerie, and the expert seamstresses who sewed it, played a critical role in those first well-supported steps on the moon.
By Smithsonian Institution4.6
21702,170 ratings
In the Venn diagram of life, it’s hard to imagine what spacecraft and women’s underwear might have in common. And that’s probably what NASA engineers thought back in 1962 when they asked a handful of companies to design a spacesuit that would keep a man alive and mobile on the moon. Nobody counted on the International Latex Corporation, whose commercial brand, Playtex, was known for its bras and girdles. But lingerie, and the expert seamstresses who sewed it, played a critical role in those first well-supported steps on the moon.

91,297 Listeners

43,837 Listeners

26,242 Listeners

1,478 Listeners

6,892 Listeners

1,276 Listeners

1,288 Listeners

3,648 Listeners

4,203 Listeners

2,122 Listeners

16,512 Listeners

3,563 Listeners

5,109 Listeners

2,303 Listeners

1,739 Listeners