Bidding for this lot will end on Wednesday, March 25th. The auction will begin at 9:30 AM (PDT) / 12:30 PM (EDT) / 4:30 PM (GMT) and lots are sold sequentially via live auctioneer; tune in to the live streaming broadcast on auction day to follow the pace. Note other lots in the auction may close on Thursday, March 26th or Friday, March 27th.
A NASA/JSC Mark III Zero-Prebreathe space suit from Mimi Leder's Deep Impact in a custom display. The crew of the Messiah wore space suits while they worked to deflect the comet headed for Earth into a new path.
The Messiah crew's state-of-the-art zero-rebreathe suits were designed and built by Christopher Gilman's renowned Hollywood space suit fabrication house Global Effects based on real-world NASA Mark IIIs. First created in the early 1990s, the Mark III offered superior mobility for lunar or Martian surface tasks, such as kneeling, picking up objects, and even somersaults, if desired. The design proved successful during NASA's tests at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, TX, and this suit became the "parent" suit for the new xEMU being built for the Artemis moon mission. While some of the parts were ultimately replaced with fabric elements, the overall architecture remained the same.
This suit is a near-exact copy of the Mark III developed at the JSC advanced suit lab. In addition to his other design work for JSC, Christopher Gilman built four of these Mark III suits for the "Desert Rats" research team at JSC to be used with their lunar rover concept. In recent years, this suit was featured in Eureka Exhibit's "Be the Astronaut," a "realistic simulation of outer space travel and exploration" designed to tour museums and science centers. The same style of suit also appeared in productions such as Stargate SG-1 and Space Force.
The suit consists of a one-piece helmet with a gold visor and a locking torso featuring real Ortho Fabric (the same as used on the current spacewalk suits) sleeves and gloves, hand-marked "Tom," believed to be for stuntperson Tom Morga; a vacuum-formed EVA backpack hand-marked "Tom"; matching pants hand-marked "#1" on an adhesive strip on the interior, and boots with air vent conduits throughout for breathability. For "Be the Astronaut," the suit was strapped across the center inside a large, custom glass display case with an explanatory placard affixed to its exterior.
Following production, the lot underwent sympathetic repair to stabilize the suit inside the display. The suit exhibits staining on its hard and soft components, as well as a crack on the EVA backpack, scuffing throughout from production wear and age. Dimensions: (displayed) 60" x 48" x 100" (152.5 cm x 122 cm x 254 cm)
Additional Provenance: Letter of Authenticity from Gilman on Global Effects letterhead.
Special shipping required; see notice in the Buyer's Guide.
Contains electronic and mechanical components; see notice in the Buyer's Guide.
Estimate: $15,000 - 30,000