Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi

posted by on Saturday January 28 2017, @03:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the snazzy! dept.

Fnord666 writes:

The NASA astronauts who fly aboard Boeing's new spaceship will wear sleek, blue suits that are lighter, simpler and more comfortable than the bulky orange gear of the space shuttle era, company representatives said.

Unveiled today (Jan. 25), the new "Boeing Blue" spacesuits for the Starliner capsule weigh about 20 lbs. (9 kilograms) each with all of their accessories, compared to 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) for the old space shuttle suits, NASA officials said.

Other advances include touch-screen-sensitive gloves, more-flexible material and soft helmets that are incorporated into the suit (rather than the hard, detachable helmets of the shuttle era).

"It is a lot lighter, more formfitting, and it's simpler, which is always a good thing," NASA astronaut Eric Boe said in a statement. "Complicated systems have more ways they can break, so simple is better on something like this."

Source: http://www.space.com/35456-boeing-unveils-starliner-spacesuits-photos.html

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 11 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday January 28 2017, @10:50AM

    by looorg (578) on Saturday January 28 2017, @10:50AM (#459858)

    Why blue? Since they don't intend for them to be used other then in case of emergency, after all they are not designed for spacewalking, shouldn't they come in a colour that can be seen better then blue? Like orange or something that contrasts highly vs the dark space or water of earth. Was it more important for it to be stylish? Is this what they are going to wear when they go to fancy intergalactic dinner parties with the alien overlords?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28 2017, @03:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28 2017, @03:07PM (#459897)

    Why Blue? Lyrics by Oscar Brown, Jr (to Miles Davis "All Blues") are probably as good as any other reason we're ever going to learn about here--

    ...
    Sea, sky, you and I
    See the sky, you and I
    All Blues
    All shades, all hues, all blues

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Username on Saturday January 28 2017, @08:03PM

    by Username (4557) on Saturday January 28 2017, @08:03PM (#459929)

    Pretty easy to explain. Frank was using the yellow one when hal threw him into space. Dave was wearing the red/orange one with the green helmet. Leaving only the blue suit unused. Which Sinclair used to travel through spacetime, thus leaving us with a blue spacesuit in our timeline.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 28 2017, @09:11PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday January 28 2017, @09:11PM (#459936) Journal

    Boeing branding?!!

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]