Skylab Urine Cuff
This item is a urine cuff from the 1973 Skylab program, designed to be worn by the astronaut for urinating. This particular cuff was never used, it was a flight-ready spare.
The primary urination method in Skylab used a receiver with airflow. This cuff was part of the backup system that does not have airflow. One end of the adapter is threaded for attachment to a hose for collection. The other end of the adapter has a cuff for fitting to the astronaut (all astronauts in the Skylab program were male).
The cuff is framed with a reduced 11” x 17” copy of the engineering drawing. The drawing, by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company and dated 31st August 1971, details the assembly and describes how it should be packaged.
Provenance
- Originally owned by Charles Bell, a NASA employee at the Kennedy Space Center and collector of space artifacts.
- Purchased by John Fongheiser, President of Historic Space Systems (www.space1.com), at the Charles Bell estate auction of March 4, 2000.
- Purchased by Dave Owen from John Fongheiser in March 2009.