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Virgin Galactic reveals Under Armour suits for space tourists – and promises they can take them home

Suit will come free with the journey – which will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 17 October 2019 17:53 BST
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Virgin Galactic and Under Armour have revealed the suits that future tourists will get to wear on their private trips to space.

And the companies promise that travellers will get to take the innovative blue suits home with them.

The suit consists of a base layer, a spacesuit, shoes, a training suit and a limited edition jacket.

The companies say it is the first time a collection has been made for private astronauts.

It has been designed ready for Virgin Galactic's promise of taking future private travellers on journeys into space – provided they can pay the vast amounts of money that are expected to be demanded for such a journey, for which a ticket currently costs $250,000. The suit will come free with the journey.

Under Armour, the company which designed the suits and usually makes sporting outfits, said that the clothes would be personally tailored for each astronaut to ensure they fit properly.

They will also include individual features that identify those wearing them: they will include references to the mission they are on, but also country flags and name badges as well as a special pocket "for photographs of loved ones, who will literally be close to the heart".

The suits, which Virgin Galactic refers to as "spacewear materials", have already been tested in the lab, the company said. Those testing procedures "match the measured environment at all stages of spaceflight".

But they will also be worn on board the tests of the VSS Unity spacecraft as it heads into space, ahead of the commercial flights that are expected to begin in 2020.

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