That's chemical protective gear designed to protect the ground crew against hydrazine or similarly hazardous vapors . They were first developed in the 1960s fo

That's chemical protective gear designed to protect the ground crew against hydrazine or similarly hazardous vapors . They were first developed in the 1960s for the Titan missiles, which use the chemically nasty (but room temperature) nitrogen tetroxide and Aerozine 50. See http://books.google.com/books?id=MdTZFu1fZ4AC&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=SCAPE+suits+%28Self-contained+atmospheric+protective+ensemble&source=bl&ots=qDQRlf_LXV&sig=7joCcfETaLVBPiNywk6yTG9p9uI&hl=sv&sa=X&ei=J7A6VLylGsXMyAOvpILwAg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=SCAPE%20suits%20%28Self-contained%20atmospheric%20protective%20ensemble&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=MdTZFu1fZ4AC&pg=PA186&lpg=P... for some of the history. Here you can see the suits in use at the end of the Space Shuttle STS-1 mission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gYcqvMGla24#t=1323 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gYc... along with explanation by both the news and NASA commentators. http://www.xcor.com/blog/category/thrusters/ http://www.xcor.com/blog/category/thrusters/ and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/Clean_Space/Considering_hydrazine-free_satellite_propulsion http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/Clean_Sp... are pictures of people in similar suits, in order to fuel spacecraft. I picked those to give commentary about how hazardous hydrazine is, and that there's a push to use alternative fuels.