While they probably won't look as snazzy as the shirts they wear in Star Trek, NASA announced on Wednesday that it had awarded the ability to design the next generation of space suits to two companies.
NASA has selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to design the suits that astronauts are expected to wear in the Artemis program, which is set to travel to the moon later this decade.
The suits will also be used by astronauts in low-Earth orbit who are living and working on the International Space Station, where they are expected to be a test for new technology.
NASA has been working on its strategy to build more commercial partnerships as it has with SpaceX, and these contracts are a part of that strategy.
NASA's deputy associate administrator of the Artemis Campaign Development Division, Mark Kirasich, shared in a statement what those partnerships mean for the future of space travel.
"Our commercial partnerships will help realize our human exploration goals," Kirasich said. "We look forward to using these services for NASA's continued presence in low-Earth orbit and our upcoming achievement of returning American astronauts to the Moon's surface."
Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace will now move forward with developing new spacesuits, and depending on how they perform, NASA will select one of them.
Vanessa Wyche, the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, spoke about the benefit of having both companies working with the agency in a press release.
"With these awards, NASA and our partners will develop advanced, reliable spacesuits that allow humans to explore the cosmos unlike ever before," Wyche said. "By partnering with industry, we are efficiently advancing the necessary technology to keep Americans on a path of successful discovery on the International Space Station and as we set our sights on exploring the lunar surface."
The spacesuits will be created under the required safety and technical standards that NASA experts have put in place and will replace the suits that have been used for 40 years, according to NASA.
As for when astronauts will wear the new suits, NASA has projected they will be ready sometime around 2025, following suit with the agency's timeline for returning to the moon.
"We will be able to have these capabilities tested, and they'll be tested before our astronauts are being used on-orbit or either on the surface of the moon," Wyche said.
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