Photos: Check Out Boeing’s Sleek New Spacesuits
The “Boeing Blue“ suits feature a lighter design with improved safety features
January 26, 2017
If Sal Governale’s planning on taking any more (dreamed) trips to the stars, it looks like he’ll have some sleek new threads.
Boeing has unveiled a brand new spacesuit for NASA astronauts who fly aboard their new Starliner spaceship. The “Boeing Blue” spacesuits feature a lighter weight (20 lbs.) than the old orange models (30 lbs.), even taking into account their respective accessories. Other upgraded features include touch-screen-sensitive gloves, softer helmets built into the suit, and overall more flexible material.
“It is a lot lighter, more formfitting, and it’s simpler, which is always a good thing,” NASA astronaut Eric Boe said in a statement. “Complicated systems have more ways they can break, so simple is better on something like this.” Boe will be one of four NASA astronauts to fly aboard Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to help develop a taxi service to and from the International Space Station.
The suits are designed to keep astronauts safe in emergency situations to and from orbit, but they aren’t designed for spacewalks. Those bulkier extravehicular suits will be waiting aboard the International Space Station. Take a look at the full suit (below).
Read more about the cool new astronaut gear here.
