SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk, on Wednesday, posted a photo of the spacesuit that will be used by astronauts flying aboard the company's Dragon spacecraft, during space expedition in its reusable Dragon crew capsule. It is white and looks futuristic. In his Instagram post, Musk added that this suit was not a mock-up but rather a fully functional unit. "Already tested to double vacuum pressure," he wrote. "Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function. Easy to do either separately," he said.
Musk gave no other technical information about the suit.
SpaceX is an American based private company that designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Musk, the CEO and Lead Designer of the company, to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
SpaceX has been flying cargo capsules to the International Space Station since 2014 and has pioneered the use of reusable rockets and capsules, but has yet to launch a crewed mission.
The company is due to launch its first crewed mission with NASA in June next year, which could be the first time the suit is put into action. They also plan to send two space tourists on a flight around the moon next year.
Musk eventually hopes to create a colony on Mars, but it is highly likely his first interplanetary mission will be later than his announced target of 2018.
