SpaceX has been showing off its impressive rockets quite a lot recently, but it’s been far coyer when it comes to the apparel of the astronauts themselves. Maybe Elon Musk has been too focused on his Boring Company, or his Tesla gigafactory, or solving Australia’s energy crisis, or chastising the President.
Okay, sure; he’s been incredibly busy, and we’ve been incredibly impatient. Fortunately, the wait is now over: Musk splurged a photograph of the new spacesuit design over Instagram, with the promise of several more to follow.
He adds that the suit in the image “actually works (not a mockup)” and that it’s been tested to “double vacuum pressure.”
“Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function,” he adds.
So what do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Is it pleasing to the eye, or is it a little too plain?
These suits appear to be specifically designed to be worn within the private space company’s Dragon capsule. As per The Verge, they are pressure suits, which means they’re only suited for work inside the spacecraft, and never outside of it in the deep, dark, frigid vacuum of space.
The general idea is that the suits are worn just in case the spacecraft suddenly depressurizes. If those space-faring humans remain inside the suit, they’ll be fine. If not, then they’ll meet a rather grisly death.
At present, it’s not clear when the suits will make their debut in a real-life off-world situation. Watch this space!
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