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Since the appearance of the first comic book superhero, Superman, the suit has been the most important element , in fact, without the clothing Superman is nothing more than a simple journalist similar to the one who is writing these lines. A cape, a lycra jumpsuit and a breech were enough to make Clark Kent, a Daily Planet nib, a super man.

In real life, the word astronaut is also tied to a suit, white, heavy, and scuba, although most of the time they are dressed in a navy blue polo shirt, pants, and generic shoes. The suit and technology built into it gives them the super power to survive in space , just like Tony Stark when donning the Iron Man armor, but not the only thing they have in common with some superheroes, now they also share designer.

The change in styling is to be thanked by Elon Musk, owner of the Tesla empire and staunch fan of science fiction, who commissioned the design of the costumes of the first astronauts launched by SpaceX from José Fernandez, a well-known Hollywood sculptor and costume designer famous for dressing Batman, Thor, Spiderman, Catwoman, Captain America and even music groups like Daft Punk and Black Eyed Peas.

It is the first space commission that Fernández , founder of Ironhead Studio, has worked on, although they surely have helped him practice the costumes he made for The Fantastic Four and for the aliens in Battleship. In an interview with Bleep magazine, he confessed that when he had the first conversation with SpaceX, he believed it was a movie.

The eye-catching costumes worn by Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on Saturday, when they boarded the black and white Tesla on the way to the launch pad for the Crew Dragon capsule, attached to a Falcon 9 rocket, whose destination was the International Space Station, have been become part of pop culture.

A second attempt that has been successfully completed and that has also provided double the publicity for the designs, minimalist as well as futuristic, whose aesthetics was more reminiscent of the pilots of an EVA or part of the crew of the film Interstellar than a NASA astronaut .

Pretty and smart

The suits nicknamed Starman, in addition to sitting like a glove and being aesthetic, when Fernández's design was finished, the SpaceX team was in charge of equipping them with the latest technologies. Although they are not suitable for spacewalks (whose suits incorporate radiation protection and are designed to operate from eight to ten hours in a vacuum), they do protect pilots from depressurization on the ship, just like the ACES suits of the NASA (orange), thanks to an emergency breathing system and the ability to fully pressurize the host if the cabin loses oxygen.

It also regulates temperature, is fire retardant and only needs a connection point on the thigh of the suit to connect to all the life support systems of the ship (air, air conditioning and power and data connections). The helmet is made with 3D printing and includes integrated valves, mechanisms for retraction and blocking of the visor and integrated microphones .

In addition to being tested on humans during various trainings, a Starman suit is what the mannequin that launched into outer space aboard a convertible Tesla and what another manikin nicknamed Ripley (as the lieutenant of the Nostromo ship in Alien) wore. on the Crew Dragon Demo-1 unmanned test flight to the ISS in 2019 .

Behnken, veteran of the space shuttle STS-123 and STS-130 flights, in an interview on the NASA YouTube channel explained that at SpaceX, instead of reusing the designs of the so-called pumpkin suits, due to their orange color, the The company has decided to create its own as a symbol but with a nod to the retro , adding the NASA logo of the 80s. In addition, the astronaut pointed out some advantages of it such as having been able to try it during training and that the gloves They are compatible with touch screens.

If you were thinking of dressing up as an astronaut next Halloween we have bad news, despite being created by a designer of superhero costumes, NASA clarified in a tweet published last Wednesday that the Starmans "are not for sale in stores . "

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