If your kid is a Toy Story fan (or if you are an overgrown Toy Story fan), start saving now. That way you may have enough cash stowed away by the time NASA begins using its newly designed Z-1 spacesuit—a suit that looks a lot like Buzz Lightyear’s costume in the Toy Story films. Four years is enough time to put away seven figures, right? Because while the exact price of the suit remains classified, it’s thought to cost north of one million dollars.
Time magazine named the white and neon green, bubble-helmeted suit one of the best inventions of 2012. It will allow astronauts in future space programs to venture further into deep-space. Reports Time: “The Z-1 space suit provides go-anywhere garb featuring more-flexible joints, radiation protection for long stays in space and a hatch on the back that allows the suit to dock with a portal on a spacecraft or rover so an astronaut can crawl through without letting dust in or air out.”
Looks aren’t the only connection between Disney’s Pixar astronaut and NASA’s new space suit. The Hollywood Reporter says that the studio has partnered with the space agency to implement a program of “educational activities and exhibits centered around the character’s fictional voyage to, and 450 days spent living inside, the International Space Station” to encourage children to one day pursue careers in aeronautics and space exploration.
Right now the Z-1 Prototype Spacesuit and Portable Life Support System 2.0 is still being developed by NASA and the designers at David Clark Co. THR says that the suit will need to undergo “further revisions” before it sees any action in outer space—but any Toy Story aficionado can see that. The suit obviously needs some retractable wings. And more purple.
In the meantime—while you’re waiting for your own winged spacesuit—check out this Toy Story Into Darkness mashup trailer:
