New fashion trend dropped: NASA unveils fresh spacesuit for Artemis moon landing

US space giant NASA on Wednesday unveiled newly designed, next-generation spacesuits with black, orange and blue highlights that will be donned by astronauts onboard the Artemis mission - taking them to the Moon and back. The compact spacesuits will replace the white-and-blue bulky, big, puffy moon suits previously wornby the likes of Neil Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts.

Axiom Space in Houston, Texas revealed the new prototype suit by branding it as the"Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit," or AxEMU. It added that the suit was made in collaboration withcostume designer Ester Marquis from the Apple TV+ lunar series "For All Mankind".

Engineers at the launch event demonstrated that the new lunar gear would allow astronauts to be more mobile. The large, clear bubble around the head will provide wide visibility to the astronauts, which may come in handy on the dark, shadowy craters of the Earth's satellite.

NASA said the suit, unlike its predecessors, will accommodate at least 90 per cent of the US male and female population.

“This is going to be such a much more flexible suit, and the range of motion is really going to improve the astronauts’ ability to do all the tasks that they’re going to do while they’re out exploring on the lunar surface,” saidPeggy Whitson, a former NASA Astronaut who will be visiting International Space Station later this year onboard a private flight.

However, the final look of the suit remains a closely guarded secret. A protective layer was applied on the suit by Axiom which said it was done so to guard the proprietary secrets.

Artemis-1 programme

Notably, after months of delay,NASA's unmanned Moon mission Artemis-1 had a successful liftoff in November last year.

The Artemis programme, named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, is NASA's successor to the Apollo lunar missions from 50 years ago and will pave way for future manned missions to the Moon and beyond.

The only spaceflights to date to land humans on the moon's surface involved six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, during which 12 men made moonwalks.

The SLS is the largest new vertical launch system NASA has created since the Saturn V rockets used in the 1960s and 1970s.

The SLS-Orion spacecraft hascost NASA at least $37 billion. Its development has taken more than 10 years after being plagued by years of delays and billion-dollar cost overruns.

Notably, NASA, next month will be announcing the four astronauts it has chosen to fly the next phase of the Artemis mission.

(With inputs from agencies)

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