ILC Dover outfitted every astronaut in the Apollo program and continued to design and manufacture space suit components for the space shuttle missions and on the International Space Station. ILC Dover stems from a branch of the International Latex Corporation (ILC).

ILC began in 1932 in Rochester, New York, by Abram Spanel (1901-1985). It originally produced latex bathing caps, but expanded to include hot pads, bathroom slippers, aprons, and other items he could make using latex. In 1936, Spanel moved his growing operations to Dover, Delaware. There, he built a 100,000-square-foot building on ten acres, which would become known as Play-Tex Park, from the registered trade name Spanel used to market his products nationally. During World War II, Spanel and ILC began designing and producing rubber goods for the U.S. military. The move from consumer products laid the groundwork for the eventual founding of ILC’s Government and Industrial Products Division. Just after the war, in 1947, Spanel created the Playtex Division to continue with commercial products.

ILC’s Government and Industrial Products Division entered its prototype model SPD-117 space suit for the Mercury program contest in 1959. The suit was recognized for its advanced mobility but did not win. However, it put ILC on the map for future space suit development. George Durney (1923-1998) and Len Shepard (1926-1988), two ILC engineers, continued working on space suit designs.

In 1962, ILC entered its prototype model AX-1L suit for the Apollo contest and won. However, it had to work as a subcontractor to Hamilton Standard. From 1962 to 1965, it worked on prototype models A-1H to A-4H suits. NASA decided in 1964 to use David Clark Company suits on all Apollo missions up to the first lunar landing. These became known as the Block I missions and the Hamilton/ILC suits for Block II missions.

Hamilton Standard dropped ILC for nonperformance in February 1965. It cited issues such as cost overruns, delinquencies related to qualifying the suit to meet various mission requirements and poor reliability reports, delinquencies in hardware delivery, and details of the personnel clashes. NASA reopened the contest, assuming the competition would just be between Hamilton Standard and the David Clark Company. ILC convinced NASA to allow it to enter, but it had only six weeks to build a prototype for testing. In March 1965, ILC entered the contest and won with its model AX-5L suit. The contract ran until 1974, covering Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program.

In 1966, ILC separated out the Government and Industrial Products Division from the rest of the company. The former division was incorporated as ILC Industries Inc. and continued to specialize in products for the government.

With the deadly Apollo 1 fire in January 1967, NASA decided to drop the Block I and II designations and entered a contract with ILC to design the suit for all future Apollo missions. This suit was designated the model A-7L and was used on Apollo 7 through 14. Throughout the rest of the year, ILC began improving its design – incorporating a high-temperature Beta cloth cover layer, increasing mobility, and fixing other problems. On September 12, 1968, ILC presented its new and improved suit concept to NASA in Houston. NASA accepted the suit, which became the model A-7LB and was used for Apollo 15 through 17.

In 1971, ILC Industries purchased Data Device Corporation of Bohemia, New York. Because of this addition, the original basis that formed ILC Industries became a division known as ILC Dover. With the conclusion of the American Soyuz Test Program in 1975, ILC Dover experienced a major reduction in the workforce and moved manufacturing exclusively to its Frederica facility. The Dover facility on Pear Street closed in 1975, with all operations moved to Frederica and a workforce numbering about twenty-five key employees.

ILC Dover was awarded the contract for the Space Shuttle space suit in 1977 as a subcontractor to Hamilton Standard. ILC Dover continued to work with NASA supporting the International Space Station through 2022 with contracts beyond this date. It was awarded contracts to develop, certify, and manufacture the airbag landing systems for the Mars Pathfinder mission and Mars Exploratory Rover (MER) missions.