No-fly boys: new Russian space suit clashes with pee ritual

The current Russian space suits have V-shaped opening which allows for the traditional pre-flight pee

 

Russia on Thursday unveiled a new space suit for a future spaceship, but the design may have to be changed to continue a decades-old tradition: making a stop to pee on the way to the launch.

The Sokol-M prototype suit was demonstrated at an airshow outside Moscow, as a future replacement for suits currently worn during launches to the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft.

The Soyuz, in use since the 1960s, is set to be phased out and replaced in the next few years with a new Russian ship called the Federation.

The maker of the suits, aerospace firm Zvezda, says they will be made of “new materials” and adaptable to different body sizes. The current suits must be custom-made for each individual.

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