After more than 25 years of US astronauts wearing off-the-rack clothes while living in Earth orbit, a company working to launch the world’s first commercial space station has adopted a more custom approach to its crew attire.

Vast has revealed its astronaut flight suit, a two-piece outfit designed to be worn both on and off the planet. The company also certified a custom-Swiss wristwatch for use aboard its upcoming Haven-1 space station.

“Over the last two decades on the International Space Station, astronauts have moved away from wearing flight suits every day,” Drew Feustel, Vast’s lead astronaut and former NASA mission specialist who spent 225 days in space, said in a statement. “The environment has become safer and more like how we work on Earth.”

Feustel contributed to the design of the Vast Astronaut Flight Suit.

“We wanted to honor the tradition and history of aviation in human spaceflight and flight suits themselves,” he said.

From used to use-driven

The origin of US astronauts adopting a uniform flight suit dates to the original Mercury pilots and an iconic photo showing them standing in front of an F-106 jet while wearing a hodgepodge of colors and military garments.

“When we were selected as astronauts in 1959, little effort was made to create a standard flying suit for us. Our classic photo in front of the F-106 jet shows how we had scrounged around to get flight equipment from the various armed services,” Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper once said. “The dark blue NASA flight suit was mainly a result of the publication of that one photograph.”

Astronaut flight suits originated after this 1961 photograph of the Mercury 7, which is said to have inspired NASA to adopt a uniform look for its then-burgeoning corps.

Credit: NASA

At first, NASA’s blue flight suits were used only on the ground and on board aircraft. The Mercury and Gemini spacecraft were too cramped to change clothing, so on those early missions, the crew members remained in their pressure suits. Apollo was the first time that NASA astronauts could doff their bulky spacesuits for a shirt-sleeve-type environment. Their in-flight wear included a jacket and trousers made out of a fire-resistant glass fiber.

The same was true for life on the first US space station, Skylab. Instead of Beta Cloth, though, the crew’s outerwear was made out of polybenzimidazole (PBI), a less-itchy, fire-resistant golden-brown fabric.

The space shuttle initially saw the return to coveralls and two-piece flight suits that were worn throughout the entire mission. Crew members could also switch into matching powder-blue shorts and shed their pleated jackets for just polo shirts. This approach turned out to be too casual, though, and after Challenger and its seven-person crew were lost in 1986, NASA returned to using pressure suits for launch and landing.

The International Space Station, at least on the US operating side, adopted the later shuttle-era style of polo or rugby shirts coupled with slacks. On the winged orbiters, the dark blue legwear was custom to the program and covered in Velcro. On the ISS, NASA sought a commercial solution: Cabela’s hiker pants.

The Vast Astronaut Flight Suit has pockets and hook-and-fastener (Velcro) attach points to keep crew members’ tools handy.

Credit: Vast

Vast stepped back from off-the-shelf solutions to meet its “human-centric approach to design.” Over the next year, the suit will continue to undergo iterative testing and refinement, including material validation for safety, durability, and compatibility with the station’s environment.

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