CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Boeing revealed their new spacesuit in Cape Canaveral Wednesday designed for commercial crew flying on the company's CST-100 Starliner.
Former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson, now with Boeing, showed off the suit during a Facebook live video with the Washington Post from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
All Starliner crew will wear the suit designed by Boeing and David Clark during launch, ascent and re-entry to and from the International Space Center.
Modeled by Monica Hopkins, a Starliner propulsion systems engineer, during the reveal Wednesday, the suit is "Boeing Blue" and made of breathable fabric that will allow astronauts more moveably than past suits, according to the company.
The suit’s fabric is water wicking, Ferguson said, allowing a “slow of air molecules to permeate but does not affect the internal pressure” of the suit.
An airflow diverter valve on the suit will allow water vapor but not air to pass through the fabric, keeping the astronaut cool, according to Boeing.
Unlike the stiff suits NASA astronauts wear currently while launching from Russia to the Space Station, Boeing’s suit features mobility joints and adjusting zippers to allow for room while the astronaut is sitting.
During the test, Hopkins and Ferguson got into a mockup version of the Starliner spacecraft to test the suit's mobility.
"The seat doesn't look like its comfortable, but it is," Hopkins said.
She also said overall the suit was comfortable.
The whole suit weighs 20 pounds, half the weight of the current NASA spacesuit and includes a lightweight helmet zips up, instead of a traditional latch, lined with foam.
Reebook and David Clark Co. designed the lightweight spaceboots. The boots on Boeing’s website are solid blue, but the boots Hopkins wore on Wednesday faded blue to white.
Each suit will be customized to the person wearing it, according to Boeing.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V will launch the Starliner spacecraft to the Space Station sometime after December 2018.
Starliner is currently undergoing testing before it carries humans into space.
The Starliner was one of two commercial spacecraft selected by NASA to shuttle U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX's commercial crew Dragon spacecraft is also in testing.
The first uncrewed Starliner flight test is scheduled for June 2018. Two commercial crew astronauts will fly on the spacecraft for a August 2018 test before it takes on the first NASA-contracted Space Station mission.