Elon Musk gives first look at SpaceX spacesuit

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk is teasing the world with a first look at the company’s spacesuit, to be worn by NASA astronauts who will ride in SpaceX’s crew transport capsule to the International Space Station.

Musk shared the photo of the sleek suit on Instagram early Wednesday, saying the suit was not a mock-up and “actually works.”

“Already tested to double vacuum pressure,” he wrote in the post. “Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately.”

Musk said more details about the suit would be released in the coming days.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX — whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — and aerospace giant Boeing Co. are each developing separate capsules under NASA contracts that will ferry astronauts to the space station. The U.S. currently relies on Russia to get its astronauts to and from the space station.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to make its first test flight in February 2018, with its first crewed test flight set for June 2018.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule is expected to make its first test flight in June 2018, with a crewed flight set for two months later. The Chicago company released photos earlier this year of its bright blue spacesuits.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga

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