- Hi, it's me, Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut.
I've owned this horrendously smelly
and well-worn Russian high-altitude flight suit
since 2013.
Why did I buy it?
Well, I have no idea.
After it almost killed me,
I still continued to take it around the world
with me to take whimsical photographs.
And now, it's basically the bane of my existence.
Then although I have a love-hate relationship
with this stupid thing,
I do question how well would it actually work
in the event of a sudden spontaneous decompression.
So, I think it's time I check out a real spacesuit,
try it on, and see if it's worth hanging up
the old worn spacesuit for something a little more blue.
Let's get started!
- [Announcer] Three, two, one,
zero seconds to liftoff.
- [Commentator] That's one small step for man...
(lively music)
- Welcome to Houston, Texas,
home of NASA's Johnson Space Center,
and I'm here to show you guys something really exciting.
("All Systems Go" by Everyday Astronaut)
Boeing flew me and my crew out
to check out one of America's next spacesuits.
This is one of two brand new spacesuits
that a new generation of astronauts will be wearing
to Space in 2019.
In case you missed it,
NASA just announced who will be flying
on these first Commercial Crew flights,
and both Boeing and SpaceX are racing
to get their spaceships,
their launch sites,
and their spacesuits ready
to return humans to Space from US soil.
Despite having virtually zero training,
since I doubt playing lots of Kerbal Space Program counts,
I've been asked to check out
Boeing's super advanced spacesuit.
After much anticipation,
it's time to put on some space underwear.
Well, lucky for me,
I guess I'm now officially considered an astronaut.
(imitates martial artist kicking and punching swiftly)
Space ninja!
Spacesuit time!
Yeah!
This is awesome!
This is so...
Can we switch suits?
Is there a chance that...
Like how can I please just purchase one of these?
Yeah, this is what I think of
when I think of a 21st century suit,
like something actually lightweight and small.
Before I could prod too much at the suit,
Boeing's flight crew operations and test engineer,
Kavya Kamal Manyapu, came over to answer all my questions,
and that's when I noticed something.
Wait, I just read...
Come here, look at this!
Holy crap!
You guys!
Look at that!
What!
(laughs)
You guys are gonna end up making me cry here.
That's amazing!
- [Kavya] We get that a lot, so you can cry.
- (laughs) You have people weeping.
- (chuckles) Our spacesuit is built by David Clark
that have many several years of experience
in actually building spacesuits
starting from Apollo and even the recent Space Shuttle.
What you see the orange suits that the astronauts wear--
- [Tim] The pumpkin suit, lovingly called.
- So, we have what's called a soft-hood.
You have a neck ring on your spacesuit,
right? - Yes, it's the worse thing
in the entire world.
- [Kavya] Imagine wearing this,
it's like a hoodie.
- [Tim] Oh, my gosh!
- So, it's like really easy to don and doff.
- [Tim] Doff is a word?
- Doff is a word.
- I'm learning so much already.
But that was just the beginning.
I found out the suit is 40% lighter
than all previous generation suits.
Despite being lightweight
and featuring that easy to zip helmet,
the suit can hold an internal pressure of 3.5 PSI
which is the same amount of air you'd have
at 10,000 meters or at 34,000 feet in altitude.
And most impressively, the gloves maintain their dexterity
even when fully inflated, as well.
That's the challenge.
They actually say that
the gloves are the hardest thing to design,
and these look really, really slick.
Look at how thin they are.
You guys have probably seen
like the shots of Apollo gloves.
Those EVA suits have these huge, crazy, puffy fingers,
and this is the exact opposite of that.
That's amazing.
But here's where I should offer up
some quick clarification.
This is a flight suit,
which is really only worn inside a spacecraft,
like when you actually fly
to the International Space Station or return home.
Astronauts will still have to wear
a full extravehicular activity suit
which have their own life-support systems
and cooling systems built in
if they need to go on a spacewalk,
but what this replaces is
that orange shuttle aero flight suit.
And just look at how bulky that thing was.
I guess that's about how baggy clothes were
back then anyway.
- David Clark has partnered with Reebok
to come up with this design.
It's really lightweight.
- Oh my, this is...
When you say really lightweight,
you're not kidding.
This is crazy lightweight.
How heavy are these, do you know?
- Two pounds.
- Two pounds each? - Of air.
- Of air.
Both of the these feel about as light
as my like normal like Toms even.
I swear I don't know how you make these that light.
Carbon nano-tubes.
I'm calling it now.
(laughing)
Okay, enough talking about it.
Let's put this thing on.
It slides on so easy.
I might hold the record, actually,
for putting on my stupid spacesuit thing.
I've probably put that on, what, hundreds of times.
It's already much easier than my suit.
Okay, there we go.
- Adjust the arms like this.
Okay, now what you'll end up doing here...
Let me get this side squared.
Is you are going to bend forward and down
and through here with your head.
And slowly roll your shoulders in.
Good.
Now you can go ahead and slowly stand up
and we'll pull this around your hips.
- That was so easy.
- [Man In White] Okay, step forward for me
a couple of steps.
- Okay. (laughs)
- Arm out to the sides.
I'm working the wrinkles out.
How's it feel?
- Amazing!
(Kavya laughs)
I mean, I could actually wear this around the house.
And I'll tell you from experience,
I've worn my suit for like eight hours at a time,
and it's the worst thing ever.
I could do this for weeks.
I'll just sell my house,
'cause this is basically like your own little house,
a mobile house.
I'll just live in this from now on.
- [Man In White] There you go.
- The hoodie helmet itself doesn't offer much
for crash protection,
so astronauts will wear a beenie
that has a small built-in helmet pad
as well as the communications system
to speak with each other
and ground control.
Dual microphones.
Britney Spears would be very jealous.
Is that a bad reference?
Who's the more modern?
Lady Gaga would be very jealous.
No, but she doesn't use one of those things.
Who else uses?
Bieber.
I don't know.
Insert famous person that has one of these.
They're jealous right now.
I'm wearing the most advanced spacesuit in the world
and I'm excited about two microphones.
("Ground Control" by Everyday Astronaut)
Oh, my gosh!
That's it?
- That's it.
- It goes on so easy.
Look at that.
- Can you reach out completely?
Good.
- Okay, internet, who wants to help me buy one of these?
Because--
- That's a pretty good length for you.
- I need one of these right now.
(chuckles) I have all the power in the world!
This is so great!
Do I look as cool as I feel?
Do I look 10 times cooler than I feel?
'Cause I feel about as cool as it gets right now.
(laughing)
How far could I get before they've noticed I ran away?
(woman giggling)
The car is 200 yards that way.
I think I can sprint pretty fast,
and then we can drive out.
I don't know how fast the security cars are.
We have a Camry with a four cylinder.
I think we got pretty good odds.
After some intense negotiations
with Boeing Social Media Manager,
I find myself suddenly breaking into some pretty
fantastic dance moves.
And just to make this 10 times better,
I'm going to leave out any music,
so all you hear is the awkward rustling
of the microphone against the spacesuit.
(microphone rustling against spacesuit)
Wait, no!
You're not gonna ruin me now.
(laughs)
And here's where you might be asking
is this suit hot?
Well, after dancing around in it for far too long,
yes, it does get a bit hot,
but luckily, the suit has an option
of being hooked up to ventilation.
That's actually what I've always wanted.
This is all a big ploy
'cause I've always wanted to see
what ventilation feels like in a spacesuit
'cause I'm used to cooking alive in spacesuits,
so this is nothing new.
So I'm actually gonna feel
what it's like to have air circulating
in a spacesuit.
(air blowing)
- [Man In White] Feel the air circulating?
- Okay, but in all seriousness,
if you can't tell by my smile,
wearing this spacesuit really feels special,
and that's when it all sunk in.
It feels like it's been forever
since we last saw astronauts climb
inside the Space Shuttle in 2011
wearing those iconic and bulky orange suits.
It feels like a thing of the past.
But this, this really feels 21st century,
new, high-tech, lightweight,
and truly ready for a new generation of Space explorers.
("Ground Control" by Everyday Astronaut)
(crying)
No, no, I'm back in this stupid thing!
No!
Okay, seriously, I'm going to replace this thing soon.
That made me realize just how much better
I could actually have it.
If you wanna know why I even have this spacesuit
or how I got it,
be sure and check out this video
where I explain that whole ridiculous story.
In an upcoming video,
I'm going to take you inside a Starliner
and the training simulator
to help you learn even more
about the upcoming Commercial Crew Program.
Thanks to Boeing for sending us down there
to check out everything.
I say this often,
I am not a big fan of picking teams.
I'm team Let's Explore Space!
But if you couldn't tell by my face,
I really had an amazing time.
So, thank you.
If there's anyone else out there
that wants me to check out their spacesuit
or upcoming spaceship,
hit me up,
I definitely got the bug.
I owe a huge thanks to my Patreon supporters
for helping make videos like this
and all other content possible.
As a thanks to those who support this show,
I'm now doing giveaways every 100 patrons.
It'll always be some kind of lone Space material
like this pieces of Space Shuttle.
So if you want some chance to win
some actual flown Space hardware
or want to hang out in our exclusive Subreddit
or our exclusive Discord channel,
head on over to
patreon.com/everdayastronaut.
Thank you.
And while you're out there on the grand ole internet,
head on over to my website, everydayastronaut.com,
where you can find Prelaunch Previews
of all upcoming rocket launches.
That's right,
you finally don't have to ask me
what's gonna happen on this upcoming mission on Twitter.
You can go there to my website
and you can find out,
"Are they gonna land this one?
"Is this one gonna recover a fairing?
"Where is this mission going to?
"When does it launch?"
All the things you need to know
in one easy to find place,
and then while you're there,
head on over to my shop
and check out my new awesome shirts like this.
F-1 Engine can be on your chest.
everydayastronaut.com
Thanks everybody.
That does it for me.
I'm Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, bringing Space
down to Earth for everyday people.
("Ground Control" by Everyday Astronaut)