Orphans in Space: Forgotten Films from the Final Frontier
special edition for Roger That! 2021
Astrovac: Zero Gravity Personal Body Wash Unit (ca. 1970)
Produced by Fairchild-Republic
5 min., color, silent;
Source: A/V Geeks
added soundtrack by Andrew Insignares & Christopher Insignares (2012)
Little is known about this silent demonstration film, save from what can be surmised from the images. The opening title card “Company Confidential” presumably refers to the film’s producer. Screen credits identify Republic Aviation, a division of Fairchild Hiller Corporation, as developer of the Astrovac device. (Fairchild acquired Republic in 1965. Both were major aircraft and aerospace manufacturers.) The product demo — five minutes of a hirsute man cleaning his body — is followed by text listing twelve selling points. Presumably a live speaker would narrate to its select audience of space program experts.
Fairchild Hiller’s Republic Aviation division conducted research for NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in the 1960s and ’70s. Several reports mention the Astrovac “mechanical body wipe device.” The scientific paper “Life Support for Large Space Stations” (Ingelfinger and Secord, 1968) lists it in an inventory of devices proposed for such missions. Infectious Disease in Manned Spaceflight: Probabilities and Countermeasures (National Academy of Sciences, 1970), noted “Intensive anaerobic studies were conducted on mouth, skin, and fecal microflora. Men periodically full-body sponge bathed (Astrovac) with an aqueous solution” of benzalkonium chloride [an ingredient in some Covid-era hand sanitizers]. Other NASA reports indicate the gadget was fabricated for Skylab (1973-74), whose astronauts later utilized a larger model for cleaning surfaces in the galley and dining areas.
Confusingly, in the 1980s the M.I.T. Space Systems Laboratory developed for NASA a large vacuum chamber for scientific experimentation, calling it Apparatus for Structural Testing and Research on On-Orbit Vibration and Control (ASTROVAC).
Further information about this film might reside in the Smithsonian’s Fairchild Industries, Inc. Collection, 1919-1980, National Air and Space Museum Archives. (See Box 378, Folder 1, List of Fairchild films.)
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Preservation note by Skip Elsheimer
A/V Geeks purchased the unpreserved 16mm Ektachrome print from an eBay seller of aerospace ephemera.
Here’s the silent version on the A/V Geeks YouTube channel.