SpaceX unveils sleek, white spacesuit for astronaut travel

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX has unveiled a sleek white spacesuit for astronauts on its crewed flights coming up next year.

This undated image made available by Elon Musk on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017 shows a new spacesuit from his company SpaceX. AP

Chief executive Elon Musk made the big reveal via Instagram on Wednesday. He says it’s not him in the new suit, rather a SpaceX engineer.

SpaceX is developing a crew version of its Dragon cargo capsule for NASA astronauts. Boeing is also working to get U.S. astronauts flying again from home soil. Boeing is going blue for spacesuits for its Starliner capsules.

U.S. astronauts last rocketed away from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2011. They’ve since been riding Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station.

Musk says the new SpaceX suit has been tested on Earth — and works. He says it was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function.