GoKawiilAfter more than 25 years of US astronauts wearing off-the-rack clothes while living in Earth orbit, a company working to launch the world’s first commercial space station has adopted a more custom approach to its crew attire.
Vast has revealed its astronaut flight suit, a two-piece outfit designed to be worn both on and off the planet. The company also certified a custom-Swiss wristwatch for use aboard its upcoming Haven-1 space station.
“Over the last two decades on the International Space Station, astronauts have moved away from wearing flight suits every day,” Drew Feustel, Vast’s lead astronaut and former NASA mission specialist who spent 225 days in space, said in a statement. “The environment has become safer and more like how we work on Earth.”
Feustel contributed to the design of the Vast Astronaut Flight Suit.
“We wanted to honor the tradition and history of aviation in human spaceflight and flight suits themselves,” he said.
From used to use-driven
The origin of US astronauts adopting a uniform flight suit dates to the original Mercury pilots and an iconic photo showing them standing in front of an F-106 jet while wearing a hodgepodge of colors and military garments.
“When we were selected as astronauts in 1959, little effort was made to create a standard flying suit for us. Our classic photo in front of the F-106 jet shows how we had scrounged around to get flight equipment from the various armed services,” Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper once said. “The dark blue NASA flight suit was mainly a result of the publication of that one photograph.”