Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson on Wednesday introduced the custom suits that will be worn by the first private astronauts.
US sportswear designer Under Armour "worked day and night for about two years on this project" said Branson, who himself served as a model at the presentation at a skydiving simulator near New York.
The 69-year-old British billionaire donned the personalized royal blue suit that he plans to wear during his company's inaugural flight—sometime in 2020.
"Spacesuits are a part of the iconography of the first space age. Our visual impressions of human spaceflight and what astronauts wear are inextricably linked," Branson explained. "I love the way the spacewear looks and I love the way it feels."
"I also love the fact that the next time I put it on, I will be on my way to space."
[...] The material for the suits, undergarments and boots were chosen for their ability to aid in the body's temperature and moisture regulation.
A transparent interior pocket was added so space-exploring customers can keep pictures of their loved ones "literally... close to the heart," according to a statement from Virgin Galactic.
[...] Every space tourist will get their own custom suit that they can take home with them back on Earth, complete with a label of their name and their country's flag.
[...] Virgin Galactic, which was founded in 2004, has spent years developing its space program, and after a fatal accident in 2014, has twice crossed the barrier into the final frontier.
But the company has still not yet piloted a space flight with clients on board.
Previously:
NASA's New Artemis Spacesuits Make It Easier for Astronauts of All Sizes to Move on the Moon
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Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408
NASA revealed new spacesuits, specifically created for the Artemis generation of missions, which aim to get the first American woman and the next American man to the surface of the Moon by 2024. The new design’s toppling feature is greater mobility and flexibility, in basically every respect. NASA unveiled both a full suit designed for use in extra-vehicular activities on the surface of the Moon, and a flight suit for use while in transit to lunar orbit.
Guided by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, the agency first demonstrated the suit that astronauts will use on the surface of the Moon (and, with modifications, eventually on Mars). It’s called the “xEMU” variant, and it looks a lot like what you might think of when you imagine “space suit” in your mind. But it’s quite different in many respects from what astronauts used to visit the surface of the Moon during the Apollo program.
It allows you to actually moonwalk, for instance: The original suit used for Moon-based activities actually only offered enough range of motion for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to be able to essentially “bunny hop” on the lunar surface, in Bridenstine’s own words. This new design allows them to move around much more dynamically, including actually walking, and offers plenty of range of motion for their arms. Combined with new gloves that actually allow astronauts to freely move their fingers, they can do things like pick up rocks off the lunar surface with relative ease.
The new spacesuit design is also designed to work with virtually everyone who could want to become an astronaut, with inclusive sizing that can accommodate anyone from the “first percentile female to the 99th percentile male,” according to Kristine Davis, an Advanced Space Suit Engineer at NASA and the person who demonstrated the xEMU variant of the suit onstage at the event on Tuesday.
“We want every person who dreams of going into space to be able to say to themselves, that yes, they have that opportunity,” Bridenstine added, regarding the suit’s inclusive design.
Branson to sell part of Virgin Galactic stake
Richard Branson, the founder and largest shareholder of suborbital spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, will sell more than a fifth of Virgin Group's majority stake in the company to raise funds to aid its other companies affected by the pandemic.
In a statement May 11, the company announced that Vieco 10, the Virgin Group holding company that owns the majority of Virgin Galactic, planned to sell up to 25 million shares, accounting for about 22% of its overall stake in the company. That sale would generate $485 million for Virgin at the price of $19.40 per share at the close of trading May 11.
Virgin Group said the sale of stock, the company said in a statement and in its S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was "to support its portfolio of global leisure, holiday and travel businesses that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19."
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(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @12:12AM (7 children)
The space suits, they're full of niggers!
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @12:35AM (6 children)
Niggers bleed purple when they die.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @01:29AM (5 children)
I like spam, niggers, and niggery spam.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @01:31AM (4 children)
Try again, nigger mods! I love you so much!!
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:31AM (3 children)
Nigger, please.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:52AM (2 children)
I went bobbing for niggers and came with a mouth full of penis.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:55AM (1 child)
Why bother to lie? You were bobbing for penis, and didn't care what color they were.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:58AM
I went bobbing for penis and came with a mouth full of nigger.
(Score: 1) by Sally_G on Friday October 18 2019, @02:19AM (3 children)
How long until the street vendors are selling mock space suits? Sorority sisters all showing up at a party, dressed alike except for name tags, coming to a college near you soon!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:36AM
^^^ Wow! Kenny G's daughter! ^^^
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday October 18 2019, @02:45AM
Gräfenberg?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Friday October 18 2019, @04:02AM
It probably started before 1960.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday October 18 2019, @03:13AM (4 children)
Can you spacewalk in these? I doubt it. What's the point then?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @03:19AM
If you wear it, you're rich.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @01:08PM (1 child)
Free advertising. These are flight suits, not space suits, but it gets both Virgin and Under Armor in the news.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:47PM
I'd like to get under that virgin's armor!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @04:01PM
Pressure + oxygen. The suits are going to be pressurized and oxidized(? - just doesn't sound right, oxygenated perhaps) so in case of a cabin depressurization event, you don't just immediately black out and die shortly thereafter. It's actually a much more remarkable achievement than it looks like. You should be able to walk into a vacuum with that suit on and be A-OK. Creating a suit that is pressurized and provides good mobility is not easy - NASA never managed to achieve it. Making it look stylish is even harder.
The reason the NASA spacewalk suits look absurd is for temperature regulation. For general purpose space walks you need suits that can tolerate temperature ranges colder than -250F and hotter than boiling. You also need to be able to handle the astronaut piss/shit/puking themselves without it impairing them in any way - that's a completely different beast.
On the other hand, we will be able to go for strolls on Mars in suits that are not all that different than these (the nice looking ones) owing to a quite pleasant temperature (at times). On the equator during the summer you're looking at right balmy temps around 70F.