Talk about taking coals to Newcastle! Using vacuum bottle insulation
to protect astronauts from the cold of space?

Ah, well. He didn't have the benefit of modern research, and, in fact,
perhaps vacuum bottle insulation might actually be a good thing to
have on a space capsule... to protect astronauts from the heat of re-
entry, even as the ablative shielding and aerodynamics protect the
craft itself from being melted.

And, for that matter, there were temperature problems on board Apollo
13, so this might not have been as far-fetched as it seems.