Taking to Instagram Wednesday morning, Musk gave fans a sneak peek at SpaceX's fashionable spacesuits, which he confirmed "actually works."
"Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup)," the billionaire captioned the photo. "Already tested to double vacuum pressure. Was incredibly hard to balance [a]esthetics and function. Easy to do either separately."
Though Musk failed to specify if the suits will be worn by astronauts going on spacewalks, the sleek new designs are assumed to be solely for NASA astronauts being transported to the International Space Station on SpaceX's planned Dragon Capsule, according to Gizmodo.
The body-hugging suits leave many wondering if the space company tapped trendsetters to create the new look. Did Anna Wintour or maybe the musical group Daft Punk have a hand in the designs?
— Jay Miller (@kjaymiller) August 23, 2017
Nope, turns out it was Jose Fernandez, a famed Hollywood costume designer, who created costumes for Wonder Woman, Batman and even X-Men.
"SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk, reached out to me to ask if I would create a spacesuit," Fernandez told Bleep in early 2016. "I didn't know what SpaceX was and I thought it was a film. Then I realized it's an actual space program."
From there, Fernandez worked with Musk for roughly six months before the prototype was reverse-engineered in order to be made "functional for flight."
"He kept saying, ‘Anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,' and when people put this spacesuit on, he wants them to look better than they did without it, like a tux," Fernandez added.
With Musk promising to release "more in the days to follow," his comments on the new look also echoed statements he first made during a Reddit AMA interview in 2015. Just two years back the innovator indicated the suit "needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well," noting it's "really difficult to achieve both."
Drawing comparisons to Boeing's touchscreen-friendly suit, which weighs 40 percent less than NASA's current spacesuits, fans are in love with the Bond-like suit.
— Jake 🌈 (@CaptainJZH) August 23, 2017
It's safe to say that anyone wearing one of these get-ups is going to be looking pretty smooth, watch out for the paparazzi.
