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We've had two questions about the red stripes on extravehicular suits, used to distinguish between the suited astronauts. Usually the more experienced or higher-ranking astronaut wears the stripes. When there are three astronauts, a broken red "candy cane" stripe has been used. Russian Orlan EVA suits also use color-coded stripes to distinguish crew.

Do intravehicular suits (e.g ACES or Sokol) similarly have markings that can distinguish crew?

  • Don't count personalization such as nametags, country flags, or space agency patches (they are not as easily recognizable as a stripe).
  • An older question covers how light sticks can be used to distinguish astronauts from closeout crew in an emergency.
DrSheldon
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1 Answers1

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Shuttle ACES / "pumpkin" suits had subtle markings.

2.2.9 Crewmember Identification Patches

Colored Velcro patches with a letter help crewmembers identify personal equipment (suits, harness, boots, etc.) during on-orbit operations and to identify individual crewmembers during SAR operations (see Table 2-1 below). The helmet, parachute harness, and boots have this patch.

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Source: Shuttle Crew Escape Training Manual

If you view the next image full size you can see the colored boot tags.

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Image source: NASA

This next picture shows the parachute harness tag

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Picture credit: NASA

Finally, the helmet tag

enter image description here

Organic Marble
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    Do you happen to know the meaning of "LON" and "DN" in the table? They aren't listed in the list of abbreviations in the manual (even though the obvious ones like CDR are). – TooTea May 13 '20 at 15:58
  • @TooTea LON is Launch On Need, DN is Down. They refer to the expanded crew that would be landing in a rescue mission / retrieval of stranded crew from the ISS or even just a crew rotation from the ISS. LON was the standby shuttle to get the stranded crew back that started being planned after the 107 failure. – Organic Marble May 13 '20 at 16:02