NASA unveils a new suit for astronauts designed specifically for moon trips

The large, puffy white jumpsuits that Neil Armstrong and his colleagues wore on their Apollo program half a century ago have become an obsolete design.

And the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled the first model of a newly designed space suit, specifically for the first mission of astronauts who are expected to go to the moon in the next few years.

The latest moon suit design was shown at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, during an event organized for media and students and hosted by Texas-based Axiom Space.

NASA had asked Axiom Space to make suits for the astronauts participating in the Artemis program, the successor to the Apollo moon missions.

In December, the Artemis 1 mission, the first launch of NASA’s powerful new rocket and newly built Orion spacecraft, successfully completed an uncrewed test flight around the Moon and then back.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency intend to announce, on the third of next April, the four astronauts who have been selected for the Artemis 2 mission, which will launch, perhaps next year, and will also be a mission to orbit the moon and then return to Earth.

If successful, that flight would pave the way for the Artemis 3 mission, which will land astronauts on the lunar surface, and will be the first ever trip to its south pole, scheduled for launch later this decade. She will also be the first to send a woman to walk on the moon.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the new astronaut suits “will provide opportunities for more people to explore and conduct scientific studies on the lunar surface than ever before.”

The new suits, which will be worn by the Artemis astronauts, will look very different from the previous thicker suits. It is characterized as modern, more streamlined and flexible than those worn by the astronauts in the Apollo missions, and allows for greater range of movement and varies in size.

(Reuters)