Marvel and DC Costumer Designed NASA's New Spacesuits

CBR

Batman v Superman, Civil War Costumer Designed NASA's New Spacesuits

By Kelvin Childs

Published Jun 2, 2020

Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez designed the spacesuits for the NASA astronauts on the latest mission to the International Space Station.

On Monday, March 30, 2020 at a SpaceX processing facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX successfully completed a fully integrated test of critical crew flight hardware ahead of Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program; the first flight test with astronauts onboard the spacecraft. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley participated in the test, which included flight suit leak checks, spacecraft s

The modern spacesuits worn by astronauts on Crew Dragon Demo-2 to the International Space Station were designed by Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez of Ironhead Studio.

Fernandez has designed outfits and headgear for numerous films, including Captain America: Civil War, Thor's and Loki's helmets for the Thor movies, Spider-Man's mask with changing lenses for Spider-Man: Far from Home and Batman's cowl for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Fernandez said he was unaware of how his ideas might be used when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk invited him to a design competition: "I didn't know what SpaceX was, and I thought it was a film."

The Fernandez-designed spacesuits are less bulky and more flexible than past suits, featuring helmets joined to the body with a flexible neck that gives the wearer a wide field of vision. But Fernandez said Musk wanted the suits to be attractive and functional. "[Musk] kept saying, 'Anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,' and when people put this space suit on, he wants them to look better than they did without it, like a tux. You look heroic in it," Fernandez said.

Spacecraft commander Douglas Hurley and joint-operations commander Robert Behnken wore the spacesuits in a May 30 flight to the International Space Station, NASA's first launch of American astronauts from the United States since 2011.

(via Forbes)