Space travel, it must be said, does not seem glamorous. You have to pee your pants and eat reconstituted roast beef for dinner. But future space flights might get a little fancier when the next moon-bound astronauts put on Axiom Space’s new spacesuit, designed in partnership with Prada. The Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU for short) can withstand the punishing conditions of the lunar South Pole — with a touch of sophistication that space apparel has been lacking, evidently.
Prada and Axiom collaborated on the outer layer of the suit, with the fashion house lending expertise on “high-performance materials, features, and sewing techniques.” In addition to protecting the wearer from the icy cold vacuum of space, the suit also aims to “visually inspire future space exploration.”
The suit includes a helmet and visor equipped with lights, an HD camera, and 4G/LTE communication. As you’d expect from haute couture, the gloves are custom made, the boots are designed for lunar terrain, and according to the press release it accommodates a wide range of crewmembers with “anthropomorphic sizing,” so I guess a cat could wear it, too. How chic!
Unfortunately it’ll be a while before we can see the suit on the red carpet, er, planet. The AxEMU will be worn by NASA astronauts on the Artemis III mission to the moon, scheduled for “no earlier” than September 2026.
