This Sunday, the Falcon 9 spacecraft company SpaceX successfully docked at the International Space Station, after launching this weekend from Cape Canaveral. Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken became the first NASA astronauts to fly for a private company owned by businessman Elon Musk.
Both astronauts wore suits designed by Mexican-American artist José Fernández. Unlike the heavy uniforms that cosmonauts are often seen wearing, the design of these suits only used two colors and with an elongated helmet and 40% lighter than other suits previously used, according to the United States Space Agency .
🇲🇽-🇺🇸 José Fernández was in charge of designing the new space suits 👩🚀 👨🚀 for the first mission of @SpaceX, a @elonmusk company on May 30.
He has worked at Marvel and DC to design the superhero costumes on the big screen.
📸 @IronheadStudio pic.twitter.com/nfNF6AoOKE
In 2016, SpaceX approached the designer to propose to enter a design contest. "I didn't know what SpaceX was and I thought it was for a movie," Fernández said in an interview with Bleep magazine . "I realized that it was for a real space program and that they were looking for design proposals for Elon (Musk) to look at," said the designer, who won this contest without presenting a complete suit, but only the design of a helmet. .
The costumes worn by cosmonauts are essential to the performance of their work on the International Space Station. According to Richard Watson, space suit subsystem manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, "The space suit acts as an emergency backup for the spacecraft's redundant life support systems."
Fernández began his career as a Hollywood costume designer on the film Gremlins (1989), according to the website of Ironhead Studio, a project he founded in 2007 to publicize his work. The designer of Mexican origin has designed the costumes for several superheroes from Marvel and DC cinema, such as Thor , Batman and Black Panther .
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Previously, Fernández had already designed suits with spatial inspiration, such as those used in the movie Pasajeros (2016). But his work is not only limited to cinema. He has also worked creating helmets for musicians such as Daft Punk, will.i.am, and Kid Cudi.
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