Italian luxury fashion house Prada is teaming up with commercial space company Axiom Space to design NASA’s new spacesuits for the upcoming Artemis III mission in 2025. This collaboration will bring a touch of style to astronauts as they prepare for the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972, which will also mark the first time a woman lands on the moon.
The Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, designed by Prada, is set to provide advanced technology and human factors considerations that were previously absent in legacy spacesuits. This development includes specialised tools and design elements that will enhance astronauts’ capabilities for space exploration and scientific research, all while protecting them from the challenging lunar environment so they can live and work on and around the moon.
NASA has previously disclosed that its spacesuits are costly, with each suit priced between $15 million and $22 million. In June 2022, NASA enlisted Axiom Space to construct its latest spacesuits after spending $420 million since 2017 in efforts to develop its own suits. A prototype of the AxEMU spacesuit, initially in dark grey and orange, was unveiled in March, with the final version set to be white.
This collaboration between a luxury fashion brand and a space company underscores the fusion of fashion, technology, and space exploration, bringing not only functionality but also style to the next generation of spacesuits.
