Space-Walking in Rocket Shoes

Amy Shira Teitel
8 min readAug 6, 2021

You know that scene at the end of the Martian where Matt Damon pokes a hole in his glove and uses the force the escaping gas to rendezvous with his crew like he’s Ironman? NASA considered something similar, but instead of a hole in the suit, the agency wanted to use jet-powered shoes.

Jet Shoes in a test run. NASA.

The Need

In the early years of human space exploration, there were a lot of unknowns, and the list got longer as mission goals got more sophisticated. The initial goal of getting a human into orbit was fairly simple, but when NASA started thinking about having astronauts step outside for a spacewalk, there were new challenges. Getting an astronaut outside was one thing — the spacesuit would be a wearable spacecraft of sorts with all the life support he needed. But he wouldn’t just be going for a walk. Eventually, he’d need to work, which meant moving around the spacecraft to perform complex tasks.

Contrary to cartoons of the era, you can’t make swimming motions and move in a vacuum. There’s no air to push against, so you can’t paddle like you’re in water. You need a source of propulsion. A group of engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Centre led by John D. Bird came up with a simple propulsive solution: jets on a pair of overshoes.

Bird took inspiration from another early mobility concept called the “Flying Platform.” Developed by…

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Amy Shira Teitel
Amy Shira Teitel

Written by Amy Shira Teitel

Historian and author of Fighting for Space (February 2020) from Grand Central Publishing. Also public speaker, TV personality, and YouTuber. [The Vintage Space]

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