Space Suit of the Week Archive - The Fox Is Black

Space Suit of the Week

Emilio Pucci - Space Bubble Helmet - Braniff International Airlines

Travel in style, always.

Emilio Pucci designed the Space Bubble Helmet for Dallas-based Braniff Airlines in 1965. These glass bubble domes were designed to keep flight attendants hairstyles from getting ruined on the windy tarmac. Pucci designed the attendents uniforms with the same flair and bright patterns that he is known for. Braniff wanted to create a new way of flying and branded itself as the rebel airline; Pucci was hired by Wells, Rich, Greene along with New Mexico architect Alexander Girard and shoe designer Beth Levine to design the “End of the Plain Plane” campaign. The air fleet was painted in nine different colors with bright Herman Miller interiors that matched the vibrancy of its airline crew.

Emilio Pucci - Space Bubble Helmet - Braniff International Airlines

The Braniff brand became a new jet-setting lifestyle. The Pucci space helmet, while being sophisticated and elegant, was playful in an era where headwear was dominated by military caps & wool pill boxes (a la Jackie Kennedy). It gave color and vibrancy to a jet-setting, moon-landing era. Similarly, Pucci designed the Apollo 15 patch of three stylized birds flying over the lunar surface – further proof that there is nothing plain to human flight.

Text by

Alana Zimmer

October 5, 2012 - See more posts by Alana

Space Suit of the Week

Dominik Smialowski casts a skyfarer in the vast green and lush Icelandic landscape with his The Pilot’s Melancholy. The astronaut is all alone, isolated with only the grey, cloudy sky above to comfort him. His suit, intricate with its ties, buckles and features resembles an exoskeleton–a plush shell harded to protect against the elements and possibly loneliness.

Thank to reader Travis for passing these along.

Text by

Alana Zimmer

September 14, 2012 - See more posts by Alana

Space Suit of the Week

David Penela - Cosmonaut

At the end of an incredibly long work week, I had a seat at my neighborhood bar. The young man sitting to my right had stars shaved into one side of his mohawk. I began comparing his hair to the style of JPL’s Flight Director Bobak Ferdowsi and how he wore it during the landing of Curiosity. This hair-do opened the floodgates and suddenly I was babbling about the Rover, Mars, the future of NASA, space exploration in the United States, blah blah… I’m sorry stranger that I sat down next to you. Mars is incredible. And Curiosity is beginning to share it all with us – more in depth than Spirit or Opportunity was ever able to do.

David Penela’s Cosmonaut series is subtly lovely. The cosmonauts, donned in their NASA Mercury-like suits, scale the red planet. Their lips are the same red as the soil, they are part of the landscape. The cosmonauts belong on the martian soil.

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Alana Zimmer

September 7, 2012 - See more posts by Alana

Space Suit of the Week

With the passing of Neil Armstrong this past week, I have spent much time looking through archival footage of Neil and his gang. I wanted to share with you something spectacular, something sprinkled with cosmic moon dust. The above panoramas of the moon are courtesy of USRA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute. Twelve men have walked on the moon. This is what it was like inside their space suits.Take a peek at as many Apollo Surface Panoramas that you can squeeze into your lunch break. These high-resolution images have such high quality that you can almost see your own breath steaming on the glass of your own space suit.

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Alana Zimmer

August 31, 2012 - See more posts by Alana

RIP Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, died over the weekend at the age of 82.

At 02:39 UTC on Monday July 21, 1969, Armstrong opened the hatch, and at 02:51 UTC began his descent to the lunar surface. The Remote Control Unit controls on his chest kept him from seeing his feet. Climbing down the nine-rung ladder, Armstrong pulled a D-ring to deploy the Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) folded against Eagle’s side and activate the TV camera, and at 02:56:15 UTC he set his left foot on the surface.

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Bobby Solomon

August 26, 2012 - See more posts by Bobby