Internet Reacts After Elon Musk Reveals SpaceX Space Suit

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday gave his social media following a first look at the space suit that will be worn by astronauts who man SpaceX’s first missions. Within hours of posting the image — which Musk noted was “not a mockup” — the business magnate received thousands of comments from his followers.

“First picture of SpaceX spacesuit,” Musk wrote on Instagram early Wednesday morning. “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.”

Commenters on Instagram commended the suit’s minimalistic black-and-white aesthetic and simplicity, and the Instagram post amassed hundreds of thousands of “likes” in just hours. Some juxtaposed the suit with designs from NASA.

“This is the definition of future space travel,” wrote one user. “I don't know how would not want to pursue the beyond in that! Thank you!”

Another Instagram commenter wrote, “This looks so much better than that disgusting piece of filth NASA is calling a spacesuit that they're using for the 2033 [Mars] mission. I'm assuming it applies the pressure directly to the skin instead of pressurizing the suit with air like the current NASA suits?”

“I was really looking forward to what your team would come up with. Cannot wait to see stats and other data on it!” commented another enthusiast.

Musk previously discussed the importance placed on the suit’s design in a Reddit AMA two years ago.

“Our spacesuit design is finally coming together and will also be unveiled later this year,” he wrote. “We are putting a lot of effort into design esthetics, not just utility. It needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well. Really difficult to achieve both.”

As the Orlando Sentinel noted Wednesday, the suit is not designed for work outside of spacecraft — a point raised by many in the commenters. Instead, the Sentinel said the space suit is “meant to be worn by astronauts in case the Dragon capsule depressurizes.”

The Verge on Wednesday also pointed to similarities between apparent mockups of SpaceX suit designs and the image shared by Musk this week. A Reddit user who shared the photo wrote that the “SpaceX suits look like they come straight from a scifi movie.”

Musk had previously teased for his 11.7 million Twitter followers that images of the buzzed about space suit were coming.

“Pics of SpaceX spacesuit developed for NASA commercial crew program coming out next week,” he tweeted Friday. “Undergoing ocean landing mobility/safety tests.”