JOSEPH J. KOSMO

Joseph Kosmo was born and raised in the coal mining town of Scranton, Pennsylvania. An early interest in science, aviation, and rocketry, lead to his pursuit of a BS degree in August 1961 in Aeronautical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. In November of 1961, he accepted a position with the NASA Space Task Group at Langley, Virginia with the Crew Systems Division working on the Mercury Program spacesuit. During the past 43 years, he has participated in the design, development, and testing of Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle spacesuits as well as numerous advanced technology configuration spacesuits for future mission applications. He was awarded six patents regarding extravehicular and space suit hardware related technology development areas and has authored numerous technical papers on the topics of spacesuits and extravehicular gloves. Joe has been the recipient of the American Astronautical Society’s Victor A. Prather Award, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the Astronaut “Silver Snoopy” Award and has been recognized by the United States Space Foundation Space Technology Hall of Fame for his work on the development of the liquid cooling garment for spacesuit and medical applications. Joe also received an MS degree in Environmental Management from the University of Houston/Clear Lake in 1978.

Joe continues to pursue the development of advanced spacesuits and ancillary EVA supporting hardware concepts for future free-space and planetary surface exploration. Over the past seven years, he has organized and lead a team of engineers (Desert RATS) in a series of remote field site test activities of prototype extravehicular hardware, advanced communications systems, spacesuit mobility studies, and human/robot assistant interactive capabilities in a variety of locations including Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and northern Arizona.

Joe and his late wife Laura were married 36 years, have four children and currently five grandchildren.