Wonder Woman. Wolverine. Batman vs. Superman. Captain America: Civil War. Ironman 2.
At the risk of stating the obvious, these are all superhero movies. But what they also have in common is that Jose Fernandez, legendary Hollywood designer, created the costumes in each of these films. He is also the man behind SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit — a suit equipped with everything a superhero might need (minus the cape).
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As space travel continues to trend toward privatization, we’ve extended our reach back out to the stars. Long gone are the pumpkin suits of the past. Space travel is cool again. And now it looks the part.
Elon Musk and SpaceX have revolutionized the way humans look at outer-atmosphere voyage. We’re done sending million-dollar rockets into space only to have them fall into the ocean, drowning taxpayer dollars. Instead, Musk and his team are re-using rockets, landing them on a mid-Atlantic barge — named, Of Course I Still Love You — in the most mind-boggling fashion.
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Fashion, in fact, seems to be a theme for SpaceX. Musk said he wanted astronauts to look better in the suits than they did without them, “like a tux.” And you can see his vision realized. The suits look much sleeker and form-fitting than their NASA predecessors.
But their design doesn’t stop with just appearance. Form meets function as astronauts who once had to struggle against the cumbersome weight and size of earlier suits, now move freely in the white Teflon fabric — with a single line for power and life-support as opposed to the overbearing wiring and contraptions of earlier days.
Fernandez is no stranger to flexible fashion, of course. He’s famous for his description of Ben Affleck’s Batman costume as a way for mobility to express character. Can you imagine NASA astronauts climbing comfortably into a Tesla?
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We’re witnessing a different breed of astronaut. This most recent launch saw two men sitting comfortably in a spacecraft, preparing for takeoff with the ease of a business consultant on his weekly Monday morning flight.
In the same way that Clear preboarding makes TSA entanglements a worry of the past, Musk and his team at SpaceX are taking what the U.S. government built and doing the most American thing possible — turning it into a better, sleeker, stronger, more efficient and effective business.
The SpaceX space suit represents the fact that when Americans are free of bureaucratic imbroglio, the stars are, quite literally, the limit. Fernandez is the quintessential hired hand who, when invited into creative collaboration, can create something amazing.
In addition to designing superhero costumes, he’s also the man behind the pop duo Daft’s Punk’s famous helmets. When Musk invited him in to design the suits, he described a vision for Fernandez without prescribing a specific solution.
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It’s this freedom to move, work, and create that led to a remarkable 3D-printed helmet. In addition to an unobstructed field of vision, Fernandez’s design is made all the better by the flexible neck piece that moves and swivels easily with the astronauts’ motions. That’s not to mention the built-in air cooling and retractable visor.
It goes without saying that a spacesuit needs to be completely sealed and air-proof. Previously, this constraint has proved most problematic. Former NASA suits were designed with bolt-on helmets that took their designs from deep-sea diving equipment. Unfortunately, placing the astronauts head in the center of a see-through globe only made them appear more like a fish out of water than an outer space adventurer.
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And while it may seem trivial to focus on the design of the suit, appearance matters. The men and women that will be a part of SpaceX launches in the months and years to come are the heroes that today’s children look up to. The action figures that toddler hands won’t let go of can be designed after the real astronauts SpaceX is sending on launches. There’s more at stake here.
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Musk and SpaceX aren’t just redesigning space travel and the technology that makes it possible. They’re calling back to the days when we looked up and saw potential — when the sky and stars brimmed with hope and adventure. They’re covering their astronauts, not just in safe and functional gear, but in an aura that causes everyone who sees them to dream again.
The child inside us all can look at today’s astronauts and want to be like them. And the children around us all can actually begin a path to fulfill the dream of leaving the atmosphere, of stepping foot on another planet, of going where no one has gone before.
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And it starts with a suit. It starts with seeing someone and wanting to emulate them. It starts with recognizing the superheroes who walk among us by the suit and helmet they wear. When the institutions around us threaten to crumble amidst corrupt ideas and bankrupt politics, two men in white space suits, walking confidently toward a rocket that will explode them out of the atmosphere, give us hope.
Fernandez has three words for the astronauts who don his suit: “You look heroic.” If looking the part is half the battle, we’re well on our way to winning the war.
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