The question most frequently asked about the pressure suit was;"How did crew members go to the bathroom?" This was accomplished by the Urinary Collection Device (UCD). The UCD had a large, thick rubber condom exterior. Inside was another thin, rubber condom attached to the open end, and tapered down as it went inside the large outer condom. The tapered condom fitted snugly around your penis, and was held in place by Velcro to your underwear.
 
 

The UCD exit tube was connected to a small rubber hose inside the pressure suit and continued down the left leg and entered an open/close valve. The valve was located in a zipper pocket near the left knee and was the only thing accessible from outside of the pressure suit. Another tube exited the valve and continued down the left leg to a lower zipper pocket. Inside the pocket was a plastic container with a highly absorbent sponge to collect and hold the urine. As you can well imagine, there were plenty of pranks played on each other with the UCDs!

Just in case your wondering, there weren't any provisions in the pressure suit for passing solid waste.

 
  Return to Pressure Suit  
© Copyright Richard Graham
Home | History | Specs | Technical | Mission | Habus | Gallery | The Books | Biography | Links