How much does a space suit weigh?

Stel dat je ooit een tripje naar de ruimte mag maken. Hoeveel kilo weegt dan het pak dat je aan moet?

Space walk

The first space suits didn’t weigh all that much. The suit worn by the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person to enter space (in 1961), weighed only around 20 kilograms.

As did the suit worn by Gagarin’s compatriot Alexei Leonov, the first person to leave his capsule and walk in space.

US space suits at the time were even lighter, weighing between 10 and 15 kilograms. Granted, that’s still a lot heavier than a pair of jeans or a T-shirt. But you weren’t just heading out to the shops – you were going to space!

Eighty or fourteen kilograms?

Astronauts landing on the moon at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s needed different suits. Ones that allowed them to walk on the moon for up to three hours, but protected them from hazards like mini meteorites.

These suits were much heavier: over 80 kilograms each! A bit like carrying an adult man on your back... at least, that’s what it would feel like here on Earth. But on the moon, where gravity is weaker, these suits would weigh only around 14 kilograms.

Gewone kleren

Modern space suits – the ones astronauts wear to do space walks – weigh around 50 kilograms. (That’s not including the ‘backpack’ filled with the oxygen that astronauts breathe.) Astronauts flying in a Soyuz rocket, and who don’t need to leave the capsule, wear suits weighing only 10 kilograms.

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have even lighter attire. The only thing distinguishing life on Earth from life on the ISS is: weightlessness. You don’t need to wear a space suit – normal clothes are absolutely fine. Which is probably for the best if it’s your home for several months!

Answered by Jean-Paul Keulen