Boeing unveiled its new NASA spacesuits Wednesday, and they look like something our of “Star Trek.”
The new “Boeing Blue” spacesuits for the Starliner capsule weigh about 20 pounds each with all of their accessories, which is 10 pounds less than Space Shuttle suits. The suits are designed not for spacewalks, but to keep astronauts safe in the event of an emergency.
“It is a lot lighter, more formfitting, and it’s simpler, which is always a good thing,” Eric Boe, a NASA astronaut, said in a statement. “Complicated systems have more ways they can break, so simple is better on something like this.”
WATCH:
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg pledged in October that his company will beat billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX to Mars. Musk plans to send the first unmanned missions to Mars in 2018 or 2020.
“I’m convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket,” Muilenburg said at a conference.“That business model isn’t closed yet. At some point it will. The future of innovation has to include not only the technology, but economic viability.”
Boeing was deeply involved in NASA’s Apollo program, which sent astronauts to the moon, and is currently developing the space agency’s Space Launch System, which will eventually send U.S. astronauts to Mars. The aerospace giant is also working to build out the commercial space sector near earth as spaceflight becomes more routine.
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