SpaceX’s next private astronaut launch is slated for this summer, and a major component crucial to its success has finally been revealed.
The mission, Polaris Dawn, is poised to involve the first extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks to be performed by private astronauts, which means SpaceX needed to build its own spacesuit capable of protecting wearers from the harsh environment of space. Now, we’ve finally gotten our first look at the design.
The new suit was unveiled on SpaceX’s website and social media channels Saturday (May 4). The announcement was accompanied that afternoon by a “spaces” discussion with SpaceX engineers and Polaris Dawn crew members on X, formerly Twitter, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought in 2022.
Related: Polaris Dawn crew prepares for world’s 1st private spacewalk with SpaceX
SpaceX’s EVA suit looks much like the company’s IVA suit (intravehicular activity), which was designed to be worn within spacecraft during launches and landings, but not in the vacuum of space. The new EVA suits contain material enhancements and joint improvements aimed at increasing astronauts’ mobility while also protecting them from the cold, airless void outside their spacecraft.
“There was a lot of work on both the materials of the suit — developing a whole new layer that we needed to add for thermal management — as well as looking at the thermal condition for the crew members themselves, and making sure that they were at a comfortable temperature inside the suit,” said the manager of SpaceX’s spacesuit team Chris Drake during the discussion on X.
The suits also incorporate technology used in other parts of SpaceX’s manufacturing gamut. “We have a lot of different resources at our disposal here,” Drake said. “There’s some thermal material that we ended up using on the boot, which was developed actually for Falcon and Dragon, and is used on the interstage on Falcon, and on the trunk of Dragon.”
The SpaceX Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit → https://t.co/z2Z9iVpt6x #Maythe4thBeWithYou pic.twitter.com/peETlLCcDPMay 4, 2024
Drake also described a new heads-up display in the helmet design, allowing astronauts to view data about their suits’ internal temperature, humidity and pressure; the display also exhibits a mission clock to monitor the durations of…
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