This article was first published in the August 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Unlike big space operators such as Nasa and the United LAUNCH Alliance, Final Frontier Design has just four employees. "It's a long road from a couple of guys in a closet to sending suits into space," says Brooklyn-based co-founder Ted Southern. Although its spacesuits haven't yet left our atmosphere, the team proved their space chops last year when they were selected as one of Nasa's four commercial space partners. Southern, 37, whose background is in costuming, and his co-founder Nikolay Moiseev, 52, who has been making spacesuits since the 80s, formed their partnership after both lost a Nasa space-glove design competition in 2007. They paired up and won the next one, and now they build bespoke suits for customers including high-altitude test pilot Miguel Iturmendi and Barcelona-based near-space flight developer zero2infinity. "We're building a next-generation spacesuit," says Moiseev (the suit is 50 per cent lighter than Nasa's current model). "We achieved this because we are so different -- the fusion of our experience has helped us create a new product."
The developments are not only appropriate for space: "We are also looking beyond spacesuits to spin-off technologies that are useful on Earth," says Southern. Current projects include a haptic navigation belt, a super-lightweight ski jacket, gloves for firefighters and inflatable costumes for Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson ONE show in Las Vegas. ("Our leak requirements for Cirque du Soleil are stricter than Nasa's," says Southern.)
WIRED takes a tour of the startup's Brooklyn factory.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
