Gemini spacesuit

[citation needed] All Gemini spacesuits were developed and manufactured by the David Clark Company in Worcester, Massachusetts.

It had removable combat-style boots, also made of Nomex fabric, along with a full-pressure helmet (containing a set of earphones and microphones) and gloves detachable by improved locking rings that allowed easy rotation of the wrists.

A further modification, the incorporation of additional layers in the legs, as well as an outer layer of Chromel-R fabric, was made to the EVA suit worn by Eugene Cernan on Gemini 9A, to accommodate a planned test of the Air Force Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU).

This version added new electrical and environmental disconnects, and a protective shell over the helmet visor, which reverted to the more economical Plexiglas.

Since Apollo would use a launch escape system in place of Gemini's ejection seats, a yellow-colored U-shaped inflatable "Mae West" personal flotation device replaced the pilot parachute and its harness.

Only two Block I flights were initially planned until December 1966, when the second one, to be flown by Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham, was canceled as unnecessary duplication.

Astronauts Grissom, White, and Roger B. Chaffee were wearing A1C suits on January 27, 1967 in a preliminary countdown demonstration test for the planned February 21 Apollo 1 launch, when they were killed in a cabin fire, leading to NASA cancelling manned Block I flights and use of the A1C suit.