The new spacesuits that will be worn for NASA’s Artemis III moon mission have been announced, with the luxury fashion company Prada partnering with Axiom Space to complete the suits.
The new suits were revealed on Wednesday during the International Astronautical Congress in Milan. The suits, which are mostly white, feature a cropped torso with stone-gray patches across the elbows and knees.
While they are free of branding and logos, the designs feature a nod to Prada, with red accent lines across the forearms, waist, and “portable life system backpacks.”
“This is a groundbreaking partnership,” Russel Ralston, the executive vice president of Axiom Space, said during the press conference. “We’re blending engineering, science and art.”
In a press release, Axiom Space shared several of the new features in the suit, including its specially engineered boots, which will allow astronauts to spacewalk for at least eight hours a day. The suits, which are white in order to reflect heat, also offer protection from extremely high temperatures and lunar dust, the release shared.
Unlike those worn the last time man walked on the moon, the suits are also expected to have improved mobility, thanks to Prada’s knowledge of textile production and sewing techniques, which the company said helped “bridge the gap” between the suit’s function and style.
“Today, anyone with deep pockets can go to space,” Lorenzo Bertelli, chief marketing officer of Prada Group, said in Milan. “Soon, it’ll become affordable, and people will be able to go to the moon. So I think we’re just at the beginning of a new era.”
The Artemis III mission, which will return man to the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, is not scheduled to depart until 2026. However, the announcement of the spacesuits is just one of many steps that will occur from now until countdown.