SpaceX owner Elon Musk has given his followers a first look at what the future of space travel will be.
Well, in his eyes anyway.
Musk posted a photograph to Instagram of a spacesuit designed for NASA astronauts to wear.
The person modelling the suit is seen in front of a spacecraft he hopes astronauts will be able to travel in to the International Space Station in 2018.
He captioned the photo with the words: “Astronaut spacesuit next to Crew Dragon.”
Marvel and DC movie legend Jose Fernandez is understood to be the brains behind the spacesuit’s design.
“I didn’t know what SpaceX was and I thought it was a film,” Fernandez previously told Newsweek about the request from Elon Musk’s space travel company.
Fans of Musk’s work and SpaceX are wondering if it actually works.
Musk has previously indicated the suit can work and it is not a mock-up.
He also admitted that it is ‘incredibly hard’ to balance the look and its function when he first revealed what the top of the spacesuit looked like on Instagram in August.
“Was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function. Easy to do either separately,” he said.
“First picture of SpaceX spacesuit. More in days to follow. Worth noting that this actually works (not a mock-up). Already tested to double vacuum pressure.”
The suit is understood to be part of what NASA astronauts would wear when SpaceX starts launching people to and from the International Space Station.
SpaceX has been flying cargo capsules to the International Space Station for three years.
The company is due to launch its first crewed mission with NASA in June next year.
The news comes after SpaceX successfully launched a secret US Air Force space plane on Thursday ahead of the arrival in Florida of Hurricane Irma.
Live images broadcast by the California aerospace company showed a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the unmanned X-37B drone lifting off at 2pm GMT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The recoverable first stage of the launch vehicle then landed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station less than 10 minutes later. There were concerns SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, would be forced to postpone the launch as Hurricane Irma threatens to batter Florida.
But skies were clear Thursday and the company managed to complete the launch ahead of the expected weekend arrival of Irma, a powerful Category Five hurricane.
It was SpaceX’s second mission for the Pentagon this year following a secret satellite launch in May and the private company’s first launch of the X-37B.
Previous X-37B launches had been performed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is one of two known craft of its type in the US Air Force’s fleet and part of a classified program whose details are shrouded in secrecy.
A resuable shuttle, Thursday’s launch is its fifth mission since its maiden flight in April 2010.
“The fifth OTV mission continues to advance the X-37B’s performance and flexibility as a space technology demonstrator and host platform for experimental payloads,” the Air Force said in a statement.
“This mission carries small satellite ride shares and will demonstrate greater opportunities for rapid space access and on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies.” On its last mission, the solar-powered X-37B stayed in orbit for 718 days before returning to land on May 7 — longer than any of its previous flights.
Some 29 feet long (nine metres) and 15 feet (4.5 metres) wide, it resembles the space shuttle, the last of which flew in July 2011.
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