- Prada and Axiom Space are collaborating to create NASA’s new spacesuits for its 2025 lunar mission.
- Prada engineers will develop design features and adapt materials to the harsh climate around the moon.
- NASA revealed in 1974 that spacesuits are costly and that it spent $15 to $20 million on them at the time.
Italian luxury fashion house Prada is collaborating with commercial space company Axiom Space to design NASA’s new spacesuits for its Artemis III mission in 2025 so astronauts can fly in style, Prada and Axiom Space announced Wednesday.
The Artemis III mission will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972, and it will see a woman land on the moon for the first time.
“We are thrilled to partner with Prada on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit,” Axiom Space’s CEO Michael Suffredini said in its press release.
“Prada’s technical expertise with raw materials, manufacturing techniques, and innovative design concepts will bring advanced technologies instrumental in ensuring not only the comfort of astronauts on the lunar surface, but also the much-needed human factors considerations absent from legacy spacesuits.”
The new AxEMU suits have specialized tools and design elements that will give astronauts greater capabilities for space exploration and scientific research, while protecting them against the harsh environment so they can live and work on and around the moon.
NASA revealed in 1974 that its spacesuits are extremely expensive and cost between $15 million and $22 million, according to previous Insider reporting.
NASA hired Axiom Space in June 2022 to build its latest spacesuits after revealing it had spent $420 million since 2017 trying to develop its own suits.
A prototype of the AxEMU’s in dark gray and orange was revealed in March but the final version will be white.
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