This Prada-Designed Jumpsuit Will Help Keep NASA’s Artemis Astronauts Cool on the Moon

from NASA Artemis Astronauts will take high fashion to the frontier on future missions by wearing a Prada-designed inner layer under their spacesuits when they walk on the moon’s surface. Called Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG), this futuristic suit is riddled with tubes that can circulate cold water around the astronauts’ bodies, ensuring they won’t overheat while they wander around the moon. And of course, it also features the iconic red stripe from Prada’s sportswear line on one sleeve.

The Italian fashion house has been working for years with Axiom Space, a private company commissioned by NASA to manufacture new spacesuits that its astronauts can wear on upcoming Artemis missions. The cooling suit, which was unveiled at a press event on Sunday, will be worn under the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, also designed in collaboration with Prada. The AxEMU is the first major update to NASA spacesuits for over 20 years. Currently, the space agency relies on a design similar to that of the spacesuits worn during the Apollo era.

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“When we unveiled the AxEMU, we announced that the collaboration between Prada and Axiom Space would continue beyond this first step,” Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Marketing Director and Head of Sustainability, said in a statement.

“Today, we are proud to present a new achievement born from the unique combination of Axiom Space’s pioneering expertise and Prada’s know-how in design, modeling and advanced materials, in anticipation of humanity’s return to the lunar surface,” he added.

In addition to tubes to circulate liquid around the astronauts’ bodies, the new underwear also features a ventilation system to provide them with oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from inside the spacesuits.

“Every minute that astronauts spend outside of their vehicles, the LCVG works to ensure their safety,” Russell Ralston, Axiom Space’s senior vice president of spacecraft development, said in the same release. “It manages their thermal environment, supports their breathing, and does all of this while they push their bodies to the limits. The work we’ve done with Prada has taken this ability to a level we couldn’t have achieved alone.”

At Sunday’s event, Axiom CEO and President Jonathan Cirtain said the company could test the new underwear on the International Space Station (ISS), as well as on NASA’s next trip. Artemis III mission, which will include a crewed orbital test of crucial hardware needed to return humans to the Moon, something NASA hopes to do as early as 2028.

The unveiling follows an April report from NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) which warned that the space agency may not be able to achieve the 2028 moon landing due to delays in Axiom Space’s schedule. The company had initially targeted 2025 to test its AxEMU lunar spacesuits, which did not happen. The OIG report made it clear that the original schedule was “ultimately unfeasible.”

At the time, Axiom Space chief Cirtain said in a statement that the company was on track to demonstrate the suits in space in 2027.