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Joseph Schmitt, 101, Spacesuit Technician for Early Astronauts, Dies

By NEIL GENZLINGER, New York Times

Joseph W. Schmitt, who as one of NASA's earliest suit techs was often the last person to have face-to-face contact with astronauts before they shot skyward on their historic missions, died on Sept. 25 in Friendswood, Tex. He was 101....


Joseph Schmitt, second from left, in 1965 with the astronauts James A. McDivitt, right, and Edward H. White II as they prepare for the Gemini 4 mission. Second from right is another suit technician, Clyde Teague. Credit NASA

...Mr. Schmitt put Alan Shepard into his Freedom 7 capsule for America's first spaceflight in May 1961, and he was still suiting up astronauts more than 20 years later, making sure everything was sealed and connected properly. Before any flight, he would spend long hours in the testing laboratory with the astronauts, getting them accustomed to their suits and troubleshooting problems.....

....The many missions he worked also included Apollo 11, the first lunar landing, and other Apollo missions, where a less-heralded part of the job care of the suit after a flight took on new significance.
We vacuumed out all the moon dust, Mr. Schmitt said in the oral history. ....



He also became an artistic footnote during his NASA career: That's him kneeling on the left in Grissom and Young, a 1965 painting Norman Rockwell made of the Gemini astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young as they
are being suited up.

For full story, click at this link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/07/obituaries/joseph-schmitt-spacesuit-technician-for-early-astronauts-dies-at-101.html