On the spacewalk: Prada helps to create Nasa’s new astronaut suits
The Italian fashion house unveils a stylish suit built to handle moon dust and extreme temperatures for the first moonwalks since 1972
Astronauts heading to the moon in 2026 will be decked out in white and grey with a dash of red thanks to Prada, which has turned its attention from high-end handbags and designer clothing to spacesuits.
The Italian fashion house jointly unveiled in Milan on Wednesday, with the Houston based start-up Axiom Space, the suit that Nasa astronauts will wear in two years’ time during the first moonwalks since Apollo 17 landed in 1972.
In classic spacesuit white to reflect the sun, set off by grey knee and elbow pads, the outfits will also have Prada’s trademark red stripe down the back of the oxygen tank.
Prada brings a bit of colour to the spacesuit astronauts will use in two years’ time
The firms are promising tough fabrics — thanks to Prada’s knowhow — to keep out fine moon dust and survive changeable weather as astronauts venture for the first time to the lunar south pole where temperatures can vary from as low as -203C to as high as 54C, depending on whether the sun is above the horizon.
“They will go in places that are incredibly hazardous, extreme environments,” Matt Ondler, the president of Axiom Space, said. “One of the missions that Nasa wants to do is to try to find water craters at the south pole. These are some of the coldest places in the universe. And so this suit has to be designed very cleverly.”
Called the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, the suit will allow comfortable excursions in the ultra-cold for two hours, or eight-hour spacewalks.
Offering protection against radiation, the suit will also supply oxygen, “in-suit nutrition”, biometric monitoring and unisex sizes as the 2026 Artemis 3 mission lands the first woman on the moon.
The French couture house Pierre Cardin developed a training suit for the ESA
GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP
It is not the first time the fashion world has helped the exploration of other worlds. When Nasa discovered that the strong but lightweight materials used in bras were ideal for spacesuits, it commissioned the parent company of Playtex to make the suits worn by Neil Armstrong — the first man on the moon in 1969.
Last month, French firm Pierre Cardin unveiled a training spacesuit to be used by the European Space Agency.
The Artemis 3 suit will not, however, be influenced by Hollywood films like The Martian in which actors’ suits featured lights inside the helmets which may illuminate faces but would in real life dazzle astronauts.
In their statement, Prada and Axiom Space stressed their ambition to produce a sartorial and stylish spacesuit, describing them as “aesthetically appealing white outer layer”, which they said would “visually inspire future space exploration”.
When Prada’s involvement in the suit was first announced last year, the Nasa astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman said however he was not expecting “paisley spacesuits or any fancy patterns like that”. He said: “Maintaining a good thermal environment is really the critical thing.”
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Octavio Smith
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