Victoria's Secret Designer is Giving Private Spaceflight a Makeover

FFD's Next-Gen Spacesuit, Under Development via Kickstarter

An unlikely duo has launched an unlikely commercial space company in an unlikely place. A former Roscosmos (that’s the Russian space agency) employee and the designer famous for crafting the Victoria’s Secret angel wings are teaming to create next-generation space suits for the commercial spaceflight industry in Brooklyn. Final Frontier Design yesterday cleared its funding goal on Kickstarter by more than $7,000, and is on its way to developing a new breed of intra-vehicular space suit.

These new spacesuits are designed with the space tourism market in mind. Building on earlier iterations of spacesuits they’ve designed, Nikolay Moiseev and Ted Southern are focusing on extending the operating pressure envelope, reducing weight, and--perhaps most importantly--trimming the per suit price tag. That’s not to say it will be cheap; FFD is trying to bring a suit to market for $50,000. Still, that beats out the price of NASA’s suits by a long shot.

According to their Kickstarter pitch, FFD is trying to construct their suit and put it on the way toward NASA certification by the end of the year. If they pull it off, their 3G suit could be skirting the heavens aboard commercial space vehicles within the next few years--no angel wings required. More over at Co.Design.