Elon Musk shows off the futuristic SpaceX space suit that could be worn by astronauts next year

SpaceX and Tesla founder, Elon Musk, has unveiled a glimpse of a futuristic space suit which he calls the SpaceX spacesuit. Musk put up a photo of the actual spacesuit on his Instagram account. [caption id=“attachment_3967833” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] SpaceX spacesuit. Image: Instagram/@elonmusk[/caption] These suits could be worn by SpaceX astronauts on crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS) from as early as next year. The SpaceX spacesuit looks a lot more stylish than the ones we are accustomed to seeing. “First picture of SpaceX spacesuit. More in days to follow. Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup). Already tested to double vacuum pressure. Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately,” says Musk in his write up. When referring to double vacuum pressure, Musk is referring to the fact that the suit was tested at a pressure differential of two atmospheres when compared to the outside. One atmosphere of pressure indicates the mean atmospheric pressure at sea level. SpaceX, along with Boeing, is among the first private companies which have won a contract with NASA to launch humans into space on the ISS. According to Space, crewed flights are scheduled for 2018 and flights to the ISS will happen sometime in 2019. SpaceX’s spacesuits follows up on Boeing’s recent unveiling of its new spacesuits for the Starliner Astronaut Taxi. Called the ‘Boeing Blue’, these spacesuits are lighter than the shuttle-era flight suits. According to Space, Boeing will be the first private company that would be flying humans to space.