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Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website Dating to the mid-1960s, this water-damaged, silent film shows men in spacesuits simulating the assembly of a large space telescope. The location is unknown, and the precise nomenclature for this mock-up device is also unknown. Most likely what this film shows is a design for the USAF's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (although the presence of NASA logos on the device may make that a bad assumption). The MOL concept was a temporary, orbiting, crewed space station that could be used for ground reconnaissance. It is also possible that this represents and early version of the Apollo Telescope Mount, or ATM, which was a part of Skylab, the first American space station. The ATM had a very different design, however, and was created to observe the Sun in wavelengths ranging from soft X-rays, ultra-violet, and visible light. The spacesuits in use appear to be modified versions of the Navy Mark IV, similar to those use in Project Mercury. The Mark IV are full-body, high-altitude pressure suit originally developed by the B.F. Goodrich Company and the U.S. Navy for pilots of high-altitude fighter aircraft. The Mercury space suit was basically a modified version of the Mark IV suit, with the most notable modification being an aluminized nylon outer layer to assist thermal control. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
