IVAActive🇬🇧
Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut Suit
Designation: VSS Unity Pressure Suit
The light blue suit that carried Richard Branson and paying customers to the edge of space — the first commercial spacesuit designed by a fashion-forward consumer brand partnership.
About This Suit
The Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut Suit is the intravehicular pressure suit worn by all crew aboard VSS Unity (SpaceShipTwo). Designed in partnership with Under Armour, the suit prioritized comfort, mobility, and consumer aesthetic alongside functionality — reflecting Virgin Galactic's positioning of spaceflight as a luxury experience rather than purely a technical exercise. The light blue color was a deliberate brand choice. The suit is not a standalone pressure suit in the traditional sense — it relies on the SpaceShipTwo cabin environment and inflates only in an emergency cabin depressurization. On July 11, 2021, Richard Branson wore the suit on VSS Unity's first fully crewed test flight to 85.9 km altitude, becoming the first spaceflight founder to fly on their own company's vehicle. The suit has since been worn by dozens of paying Virgin Galactic customers at prices from $250,000–$450,000 per ticket.
Key Features
- 1Designed in partnership with Under Armour — consumer brand aesthetic meets aerospace function
- 2Light blue exterior — deliberate brand differentiation from traditional orange/white NASA suits
- 3Helmet design integrates communications and microphone without separate earpiece
- 4Emergency pressurization capability — not a standalone life support system
- 5Custom-fitted to each customer and crew member
- 6Comfort and mobility prioritized for the 90-minute suborbital flight profile
Historic Missions
2021
VSS Unity VF-01
Richard Branson's first fully crewed test flight July 11, 2021 — first space tourism flight with Virgin Galactic, reaching 85.9 km
👨🚀 Richard Branson, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett, Sirisha Bandla
2023
VSS Unity Galactic 01 onward
Commercial service — paying customers wearing the suit from Galactic 01 (June 2023) onward
Engineering & Research Highlights
- ◆First operational commercial spacesuit designed with a consumer fashion brand — established a new aesthetic paradigm for commercial spacesuits
- ◆The commercial suborbital suit concept demonstrated that pressure suit protection requirements can be streamlined for sub-5-minute zero-g profiles