Dressed for space
Posted: Saturday, October 27, 2007 1:53 PM by Alan Boyle
Orbital Outfitters today unveiled the first-ever pressure suit made for commercial suborbital spaceflight, after keeping the design under wraps for months. The IS3C suit would be worn by the pilot once XCOR Aerospace gets its two-seater spacecraft working - and Orbital Outfitters' chief executive officer, Jeff Feige, is hoping to sell a lot more.
"We're building suits custom-built for this industry," he told onlookers who watched the impromptu fashion show at Orbital Outfitters' X Prize Cup booth.
Alan Boyle / msnbc.com |
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Klaatu barada nikto? Orbital Outfitters' Jeff Feige,
at left, points out features in the suborbital spacesuit modeled by Chris Gilman at the X Prize Cup.
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The company says the suit uses special materials that let the "sweat" out while maintaining a pressurized environment. Once the market gets going in high-frontier haberdashery, suits can be produced in different colors, festooned with logos like a NASCAR driver's togs.
Feige emphasized that the suit modeled by Chris Gilman today isn't what the passengers would wear. He said it was too early to determine what those suits would look like, but Rick Tumlinson, Orbital Outfitters' chairman, has said passengers might wear a lightweight suit with a flight-suitlike shell they could take home with them.
The suit isn't ready for prime time, and neither is XCOR's suborbital craft. The California-based rocket company hasn't announced its timetable for development, but it's a safe bet the craft won't be in service before 2010.
By that time, the IS3C (Industrial Suborbital Space Suit / Crew) should be ready to fly.
"We have already successfully tested this IS3C suit well above the pressure at which NASA operates its own spacesuits," Tumlinson said in a written statement. "While we still have a good deal of testing ahead of us, the suit we are unveiling here today is a working, first-generation prototype version of an emergency crew suit."
Other suborbital space companies are trying to decide whether to follow Orbital Outfitters' lead. Virgin Galactic, for example, isn't sure whether customers will need a pressurized suit in the event of rapid decompression aboard its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane. After all, airplane passengers aren't required to use one. Rather, those well-known oxygen masks simply drop down from the ceiling.
Rocketplane Global, another player in the suborbital market, favors more lightweight clothing for spaceflight. In fact, the word is that a trim-looking flight suit, with just a few fashion accents, is being designed for Rocketplane's first scheduled passenger, Reda Anderson.
