As a second generation space engineer, Thomas grew up with U.S. space programs. He worked as a task-manager/engineer on the Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU, NASA's current going-out-in-spacesuit-system) program and was a principal investigator on next generational suit. His efforts resulted in his developing an in-depth background on spacesuits. This experience was further supplemented by extensive personal research into spacesuit design.

McMann's career has spanned over 40 years in the area of spacecraft environmental control and spacesuit systems. He joined NASA during Project Mercury and has participated in every U. S. manned space endeavor, including the assembly of the International Space Station. He has been a project engineer, Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit life support system manager, 0-g aircraft and vacuum chamber test subject, real-time flight support console engineer, and overall EVA hardware manager in NASA's EVA Project Office. Following his retirement from NASA in 1997, he joined Hamilton Sundstrand as a technical specialist in the area of failure analysis and resolution. He retired from Hamilton-Sundstrand in 2002 and continues to act as consultant to NASA and the aerospace industry.

Remains the most comprehensive text on U.S. spacesuits and their development available

Contains many new insights and photographs on space suits used for different manned missions that were not in the first edition

Explains the function, historical development, and use of spacesuits from a worldwide perspective

Provides details on NASA's new Constellation Spacesuit System

List of figures.- List of tables.- List of contributors.- Preface.- Foreword.- Acknowledgments.- Editorial notes.- Acronyms and abbreviations.- Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Reaching upward and outward.- Chapter 3: The basics of spacesuits.- Chapter 4: Launch/entry spacesuits: Past, present, and possibly future.- Chapter 5: Gemini: The first approaches to exploring and working in space.- Chapter 6: Apollo: Mankind starts the exploration of the Moon.- Chapter 7: Advanced development for canceled Apollo missions.- Chapter 8: U.S. Air Force spacesuits.- Chapter 9: Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project suit systems (1969-1975).- Chapter 10: The Space Shuttle program: Orbital EVA comes of age.- Chapter 11: The quest for future extravehicular activity and planetary exploration.- Chapter 12: Epilogue.- Appendix A: U.S. spaceflight suit system overview.- Appendix B: U.S. EVA information.- Bibliography.- Index.