With the advent of commercial spaceflight, more people will be travelling into space, and they'll need something to wear. This week, at a lab inside an Ottawa airport, astronaut candidates have been trying on a new prototype of a commercial spacesuit, giving them a test run so researchers have a better idea of whether they'll stand up to the rigors of life in space.

I paid a visit to the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC)'s flight research laboratory, which is home to a Falcon-20. The twin-engine business jet was to be used to simulate microgravity by flying in parabolic arcs, near freefall, providing a way to test out the suit prototype. I got an early look at what commercial space adventurers and researchers could be wearing when venturing into low Earth orbit in the future—part of a joint initiative by citizen science group Project PoSSUM, and Final Frontier Design (FFD), which makes commercial spacesuits, all hosted by the NRC.

The PoSSUM team at the National Research Council of Canada's Flight Research Laboratory pictured with the Falcon 20 research aircraft. Image: National Research Council of Canada

The hangar was filled with experimental planes. Women and men of Project PoSSUM, all wearing matching black jumpsuits, turned their attention to Shawna Pandya, a medical doctor and Canadian astronaut candidate, as she pulled up the baggy orange legs of the spacesuit.

It was the first of four days of testing, and the objectives were simple: get in and out of the jet which, later in the week, would fly Pandya and another astronaut candidate in parabolic arcs over the Canadian countryside, as they wore the spacesuit prototype.

"It feels awesome," said Pandya, after she had completed safely exiting the plane in the suit. "It feels like getting back on your favourite horse or favourite bike. Something you're really comfortable with."