NASA Space Suit Material Swatch

Beta cloth is a fireproof material woven from teflon-coated glass fibers. It was developed by NASA and the Owens Corning Corporation for use as the outer layer of the Apollo space suits and in-flight garments worn by the astronauts.

After the tragic Apollo 1 fire, NASA minimized the use of any flammable materials in space flight, including space suits. Starting with Apollo 7, even the mission patch, NASA insignia, US flag, and name tag used on each space suit and coverall would also be screen printed on beta cloth rather than embroidered.

This sample was obtained from the company that developed the special inks to print the patches for NASA. It was trimmed from surplus production prints of the Apollo 11 insignia patches from 1969. 

Size: 1 x 1" swatch in 5 x 5" display
Images: NASA