Ever Wonder Why ISRO Spacesuits Are Orange? Here Is The Answer

Orange looks chic and eye-catching but ISRO is not trying to make a fashion statement when it picks this color for astronauts’ spacesuits.

The hue is called International Orange and it is the best in terms of safety as it stands out against most landscapes. Scientists explain that the color was highly visible, an ideal condition for rescue missions, especially at sea.

You can see that same shade of orange coating the 333-meter tall Tokyo Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Back in 2018, ISRO displayed a prototype of a spacesuit developed by the agency at the 6^th edition of the Bengaluru Space Expo.

The prototype took two years to complete and it was designed at Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. The oxygen cylinder of the suit can provide enough air for astronauts to breathe for 60 minutes in space.

ISRO needs three suits in total as it will send three astronauts on a manned mission in 2022.

The agency also brought to the expo the crew module capsule in which the three astronauts will spend five to seven days from an altitude of 400 km from the Earth's surface.

As the capsule will turn into a fireball when it re-enters our planet’s atmosphere, it comes equipped with a thermal shield to protect those inside.

Russia chooses the same color with NASA when it comes to spacesuits, white. The country’s space agency comes up with two designs; the Sokol is for launching and landing while the Orlan is for spacewalks. Both of them function just like their counterparts made by NASA with only a handful of differences.

China, the third nation to send humans to space, models the Orlan and makes its own Feitian suits. For spacewalks, the country also takes inspiration from the Sokol for launching and landing.

>>> K. Sivan - ISRO Chief: 38 Years Of Dedication And Contributions To Make India Proud