Who needs space science when you have Hollywood style?
Private space travel company SpaceX hired a movie costume designer to come up with its space suits — and soon they will be shown to the world.
Designer Jose Fernandez, who has worked on films like “Thor,” “Oblivion,” two “X-Men” movies, and two “Batman” movies, worked with business magnate Elon Musk to make something both stylish and functional for SpaceX astronauts.
Fernandez, who also designed costumes for the Black Eyed Peas, collaborated with Musk for six months before landing on the final suit design.
“We created a suit that they are now reverse-engineering to make functional for flight,” Fernandez told Bleep in February, adding that the suit will be unveiled “in the next few months.” (That’s about… now.)
“He wanted it to look stylish,” Fernandez said of Musk’s design requirements. “It had to be practical but also needed to look great. It’s pretty bad ass.”
Musk said months ago in a Reddit AMA that the suit would be revealed toward the end of 2015. “We are putting a lot of effort into design esthetics, not just utility. It needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well.”
The space flight company is planning to put its own personnel into orbit during its first test flights. We’ll see soon enough if the extra time and effort on the space suits were worth it.