(This interview was conducted in partnership with Cosplay in America. To read the extended interview, please visit: CosplayinAmerica.com. Photo Screencap from 2016 DragonCon Mark Watney Skit)

Wayne Neumaier of A7L Props is a rocket scientist in Huntsville, AL whose childhood dream to work with rockets became more than a dream when he began to work in the industry. Neumaier now has parts he engineered and worked on in space and on future missions, including the Artemis II rocket. After work he not only teaches the next generation of engineers, but he also develops a variety of elaborate cosplays that include a working BB-8 replica from Star Wars, the Mark Watney’s suit from The Martian, as well as Captain Jim Lovell’s space suit from his Apollo missions.

When asked if Neumaier had ever been asked by any Hollywood studios to make them a suit, since his work has gained so much attention, he responded: “A Hollywood Studio? No. I have had people come up to me and ask if you can build [items]. Without being too specific, I have had musicians ask if I can build a helmet [for them], or a few independent films have asked do you rent your suits? I have not done any of that work primarily because as soon as it becomes a job and you’re building for someone else it causes a lot of problems. I had an organization that had let’s call a display that had not been updated in 20 years, and they reached out and asked “Can you give us a hand with this?” I said “Absolutely.” Because I know this display and I was super eager to be a part of it. They [said] here’s what we’re looking for, and I said “that’s not a problem” and I built a prototype. I did it the same way I do work [for my day job]. I said alright here’s the prototype, here’s how much it will cost, and let me know your feedback by this date. If you meet this date I can build the rest of them by this time. I built what they wanted, but the deadline comes and goes, and they reach out of the blue [saying] “We need to make this change, and this change” which would have completely changed what I was building. [I responded] “No, that’s outside the scope of waht you asked me,” and at this point I need to work on my own stuff, and this isn’t my full time day job. This is what I do in the evening, so you’re eating into my personal time.

So this isn’t to say Neumaier hasn’t done the occasional commission, but his favorite ones to do are the ones that are of characters, or aesthetics, he might not otherwise do.

Neumaier commented “Sailor Moon, Overwatch, or Vocaloid [I wouldn’t normally create cosplays of], like I’m a big fan of Vocaloids, but I’m not going to dress up as an anime girl at a convention. But if someone gave me an excuse to make the headphones, then yeah I want to make the headphones. Usually if I do a commission it’s for friends, because again once it becomes a job you have a deadline and it sucks a lot of the joy out of it. And I always get this question when are you going to work for Hollywood, or on films, but I say “I’m building Moon Rockets as a day job. I love my day job still.”

Photo by Steven Lam (Source: Flickr, (CC BY-ND 2.0))

Since Neumaier works in space, and has spoken of his love of Star Wars, The Martian, and other films about space, I had to ask which was his favorite film about space?

Neumaier replied, “I grew up on Apollo 13. It’s an absolute classic, and honestly I think it should be required viewing in school. I loved The Martian, particularly the book, but I loved the movie. The only thing I didn’t like about the movie was that when he fixes the giant hole with sheet wrap and duct tape that it was a little like “What the hell are you doing?” but overall I loved the movie. Gravity gets a lot of crap because of a lot of [issues] with physics and orbits are wrong, but it’s such a beautiful film with the weighlessness and how they did the sound. So I love gravity. It’s also one of those films you had to watch in IMAX 3D to get the full experience. I can’t think of one I didn’t really like. I do know Event Horizon is like one of the scariest films I’ve ever watched, and I’ve been unable to watch it again.”

I did notice that, despite Neumaier’s life in many ways fitting in with Homer Hickam’s in the film October Sky, that he didn’t mention that one.

Neumaier remarked when I asked about this, “I actually met him! I saw the movie when I was in high school, but he was the guest at the Team America Rocketry Competition. So I have actually shaken hands with Homer Hickam.”

Considering Neumaier’s present line of work, and interests growing up, I was wondering if he’d maybe even have had other opportunities to meet Hickam; however, he mentioned he started off working alone on his hobby versus with a larger community of hobbyists and space enthusiasts.”

“I did get to do a lot of stuff through the Boy Scouts, but I didn’t go to Space Camp or anything like that,” Neumaier remarked. “And my rocket hobby until the high school competition didn’t have a social outlet as it was literally just me. So this is something I brought up in my prop class, during my last class, is that I went to this really small high school with 138 people graduating class and I might have been one of the few people who ever left [after high school]. So when I left high school, all of my time was spent building rockets. That’s what I did on the weekends. I had three Star Wars movies on in the background, because there was no streaming or anything like that at the time, and that’s what I had. So I left high school thinking I’m going to do rockets non-stop, and I’m going to live and breathe rockets because I’m going to get my name in a museum next to Dr. Robert H. Goddard, Wernher von Braun, and Burt Rutan. Then I build a costume in high school, and it literally changed my life because all of a sudden I had a social outlet. I met a lot of amazing people. I’ve danced with all the Disney princesses. I punched one of the Doctor Who actors in the face with a Dalek. I’ve made dying kids forget how bad the world is. I’ve been in multiple weddings. I’ve had kids literally look up to me like I’m an astronaut, and I even got a letter from astronaut Jim Lovell complimenting my suit. So it’s been interesting.”