The first woman is set to land on the moon - in a Prada spacesuit
We often tell someone sporting Prada that they look out of this world, but we've never meant it literally... until now. In the first collaboration between a luxury Italian fashion house, and a commercial space company, Prada have teamed up with Axiom Space to co-design spacesuits that will be worn on NASA's Artemis III lunar mission.
And most excitingly of all, this spacesuit will be donned by the first woman and the first person of colour to ever step foot onto the moon.
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Telescopes at the ready; Artemis 3 is planned to be the first astronaut moon landing since Apollo 17 (which took place all the way back in 1972), and the journey is set to take off around September 2026.
There will be a crew of 4 and the mission should take around 30 days to complete, with two crew members descending to the surface of the moon for approximately 7 days to carry out scientific tests before rejoining their crew on board for the trip back down to Earth.
The design was revealed today at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan. The Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit will be made from a white material that will reflect heat and protect its wearer from both extremely high temperatures (did you know that the mercury can rise to 121°C and plummet to -133°C) plus all that lunar dust flying around.
Sleek in design, Prada brought their in-depth knowledge on materials and innovative sewing methods to support the design of the space suit, while Axiom Space engineers worked on materials and features that would keep its wearer super safe in space.
“Our elite teams have redefined spacesuit development, establishing new pathways to innovative solutions and applying a state-of-the-art design approach for the AxEMU,” said Matt Ondler, Axiom Space President.
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“We have broken the mold. The Axiom Space-Prada partnership has set a new foundational model for cross-industry collaboration, further expanding what’s possible in commercial space.”
