By: Nick Gambino
Out of all of the privately-owned space programs racing the clock to launch us civilians into outer space, Elon Musk’s venture, SpaceX, is most promising.
With successful launches and other milestones having been achieved in the last few years, Musk decided to whet our appetites with a reveal that, while not revolutionary or life-changing, is incredibly cool.
He revealed the spacesuit for SpaceX trips in an Instagram post on Wednesday and it looks, for lack of a grander word, cool.
While I’m sure many of us would be happy to suit up in a NASA spacesuit á la 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Right Stuff, knowing that they put serious thought into the aesthetics of the suit is heartening.
It’s very spacey but also slick with a clean white fabric throughout. It’s like something you might see in a movie that’s trying to make you look cool. The look of the suit makes you think a designer was brought in, maybe even a Hollywood costume designer, to make it stand out upon first glance. This wasn’t just thrown together by the cold hands of an engineer.
Musk mentions that this is a fully functioning suit and not just a prototype or CG image. “Worth noting this this actually works (not a mockup),” his Instagram post reads. “Already tested to double vacuum pressure. Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately.”
Now these are pressure suits and are not the suits that would be used in a spacewalk. They would be worn inside the space capsule during transport to whatever destination. These are probably the suits we’d wear when we’re on our way to colonize Mars or the rings of Saturn.
Again, this isn’t the biggest announcement from SpaceX but it’s definitely one of those reveals that gets the general public more excited about the whole venture.
What are your thoughts on the new SpaceX suit? Is this something you’d like to wear on your first voyage into the great unknown? Or are you more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of person?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Gambino is a regular script writer and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.
