SpaceX going where no one has before in style
The first astronauts launched by SpaceX break new ground for style with spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship.
The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocket ship — all of it white with black trim.
The colour co-ordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, 53, and Bob Behnken, 49, like the fresh new look. They’ll catch a ride to the launch pad in a Tesla Model X electric car.
“It is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my 10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now,” Colonel Hurley said.
“SpaceX has gone all out” on the capsule’s appearance, he said.
“And they’ve worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and everything else in the vehicle work to perfection.”
The true test comes on Thursday AEST when Colonel Hurley and Colonel Behnken climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre since the last shuttle flight in 2011.
It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send astronauts into orbit. Only governments — Russia, the US and China — have done that.
The historic send-off deserves to look good, according to SpaceX. It already has a nice ring. Mr Musk named his rocket after the Star Wars Millennium Falcon. The capsule name stems from Puff the Magic Dragon, Mr Musk’s jab at all the doubters when he started SpaceX in 2002.
SpaceX designed and built its own suits, which are custom-fit. Safety came first. The cool — or wow — factor was a close second.
“It’s important that the suits are comfortable and also are inspiring,” explained SpaceX’s Benji Reed, a mission director. “But above all, it’s designed to keep the crew safe.”
The bulky, orange ascent and entry suits worn by shuttle astronauts had their own attraction, according to Colonel Behnken, who like Colonel Hurley wore them for his two previous missions. Films such as Armageddon and Space Cowboys stole the look whenever actors were “trying to pretend to be astronauts”.
On launch day, Colonel Hurley and Colonel Behnken will get ready inside Kennedy’s remodelled crew quarters, which dates back to the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s. SpaceX techs will help the astronauts into their one-piece, two-layer pressure suits. They will emerge through the same double doors used on July 16, 1969, by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins — the Operations and Checkout Building now bears Armstrong’s name.
But instead of the traditional Astrovan, the two will climb into the back seat of a Tesla Model X for the 15km ride to Launch Complex 39A, the same pad used by the moonmen and most shuttle crews. It’s while they board the Tesla that they’ll see their wives and young sons for the last time before flight.
Making a comeback after three decades is NASA’s worm logo — wavy, futuristic-looking red letters spelling NASA, the A resembling rocket nose cones. The worm adorns the Astro-Tesla, Falcon and the astronauts’ suits, along with NASA’s original blue meatball-shaped logo.
The white-suited astronauts will transfer from the white Tesla to the white Dragon atop the equally white Falcon 9.
“It’s going to be quite a show,” Mr Reed promised.
AP
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