Watch NASA’s Artemis 3 suit reveal
Axiom Space and NASA will officially unveil the new prototype moon suit for Artemis 3 astronauts in a live webcast at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT). You can watch it live online for free.
This suit was made for walking.
A prototype of the commercial spacesuit (opens in new tab) that U.S. astronauts plan to wear during the next mission to land on the moon was unveiled on Wednesday (March 15). Unlike the iconic garments worn by the Apollo astronauts more than 50 years, this new suit is a “rental” — designed, built and soon to be leased to the space agency by Axiom Space, a space services company.
“We’re carrying on NASA’s legacy by designing an advanced spacesuit that will allow astronauts to operate safely and effectively on the moon,” Mike Suffredini, Axiom Space president and CEO, said in a statement. “Axiom Space’s Artemis III spacesuit will be ready to meet the complex challenges of the lunar south pole and help grow our understanding of the moon in order to enable a long-term presence there.”
Related: The evolution of the spacesuit in pictures
In 2022, NASA awarded Axiom a $228.5 million task order (opens in new tab) under a $1.26 billion contract to build the agency’s next-generation spacesuits (opens in new tab) to support the Artemis lunar missions. Leveraging the xEMU, a suit that was developed by the engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the new Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit provides increased flexibility, greater protection against the harsh environment and specialized tools to achieve exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities.
Using innovative technologies, the AxEMU will “enable exploration of more of the lunar surface than ever before,” an Axiom description read.
The Axiom-furnished spacesuits that NASA astronauts will don on the moon will have a white outer layer to reflect heat, protecting the wearer from the extreme high temperatures when in sunlight. For the purposes of Wednesday’s reveal and to conceal the suit’s proprietary elements, the prototype was adorned with Axiom’s logo and features the company’s brand colors of blue, black and orange.
Axiom collaborated with costume designer Esther Marquis from the Apple TV+ alternate Apollo history series “For All Mankind” (opens in new tab) to create the…
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