Question: Why are space suits white and why?

Kirsty Lindsay answered on 12 Jun 2016:

Great question!

The white helps to reflect a lot of sunlight. Unlike on Earth, where the atmosphere scatters light around, in space there is a vacuum, so the light is more direct- it is either very bright in direct sunlight, or very dark in shadow. White suits means that in sunlight the light is reflected away from the suite, helping keep it cool ( a black suit for example would absorb the light and heat up).

in shadow white makes the best use of available light, from the ISS for example, and makes the astronauts more visible, meaning the outside crew can see each other, and the inside crew and see them to make sure they are ok.

Space suits can be other colours, for example the Mercury suit were silver and the MMU suits ( a spacesuit able to fly around on it’s own not connected to the Space Shuttle) is actually a sort of light pinky sandy colour.