Elon Musk teased the new SpaceX spacesuit on Wednesday in an Instagram post. The picture shows a decidedly stylish outfit that's both clean and trim. The helmet has a dark visor that spans the person's face. Put altogether, it reminds us of the getups donned by Daft Punk, especially the all-white costumes they wore to the 2014 Grammys:
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The SpaceX suits are pretty lean, unlike the bulky contraptions you saw in The Martian and the first Alien movie. But, as noted at the Verge, the SpaceX suits are simply pressure suits, worn by astronauts during transport in case the capsule they're riding in depressurizes. In other words, they're not meant for the rigors of a spacewalk.
Musk emphasizes that the space suit he teased wasn't just a flight of fancy; it's the real thing. "Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup). Already tested to double vacuum pressure," Musk said in the Instagram caption. He also noted that he had a hard time mixing both fun and utility. "Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately," said Musk.
As noted at the L.A. Times, these suits will be worn by NASA astronauts traveling in SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule to the International Space Station (which made headlines earlier this week when it photobombed a little thing called the eclipse). The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to make its first test flight in February 2018, with the first crew joining the flight in June 2018.
It should also be noted that, in January, Boeing introduced its own spacesuit for astronauts traveling to the ISS. The new "Boeing Blue" spacesuits are, indeed, very blue and have kind of a North Face vibe:
(Photo courtesy of Boeing)
