Brilliant Spacesuit Timeline

If you're going up into space, you want to look good, right? You never know, you might bump into the alien of your dreams while you're up there.

But, primarily, the spacesuit is your life support machine: the thing that's going to keep you going while you're away from the comfort of the Earth's atmosphere.

Designs have changed since the early days of space flight, as this brilliant image shows. Put together by two redditors - mareacaspica, who posted an original image, then imaginedmind, who re-ordered the suits in chronological order and added NASA's latest creation, the Extravehicular Mobility Unit. The portraits themselves are from the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum collection.

Both astronaut and cosmonaut outfits are included, as well as some that never saw active service. Our particular faves are the Soviet SK-1, with its brilliant orange (which clearly influenced the Guantanomo Bay prisoner outfit of 'choice') and the Apollo A5-L, which must have given Michael Jackson inspiration for his Thriller-era look.

Take a look at them all below, they're out of this world.

(Images: Rex/Reddit)