Jim LeBlanc was the test subject for a dangerous NASA test in 1965 designed to test if space suits could withstand a zero-pressure vacuum, just like there would be on the moon.
But when the tube pressurizing his suit became disconnected, disaster almost struck.
“As I stumbled backwards, I could feel the saliva on my tongue starting to bubble just before I went unconscious and that’s the last thing I remember,” recalls LeBlanc.
“Essentially, he had no pressure on the outside of his body and that’s a very unusual case to get,” explains Cliff Hess, the supervising engineer.
“There’s very little in the medical literature about what happens when you have that. There’s a lot of conjecture, that your fluids will boil.”
