Extraterrestrial collaboration: fashion house and space company join forces

Astronauts will soon be sent into space in style, thanks to an out-of-this-world collaboration between Prada and Axiom Space. The Italian fashion house designed an innovative space suit for NASA's Artemis III mission.  

Axiom Space is a commercial human spaceflight company. The company was made responsible by NASA, among other things, for designing the spacesuits for the Artemis III mission. This mission, scheduled for 2025, will mark the first manned lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972. It will also be the first to land a woman on the moon.

Prada was selected by Axiom Space as a partner for the design due to the fashion house's technical expertise: “We are pleased to collaborate with Prada on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit,” said Michael Suffredini, CEO of Axiom Space. “Prada's technical expertise in raw materials, manufacturing techniques and innovative designs will deliver cutting-edge technologies that will not only play a role in ensuring comfort for the astronauts on the lunar surface, but also provide the much-needed human factors missing from older space suits.”

Challenges

Prada engineers will work with the Axiom Space Systems team throughout the design process and help find solutions to protect astronauts from the unique challenges of space and the moon. The current suits have some flaws. Prada says it is honored to be part of the historic mission.

Axiom Space already presented a prototype of the suit in March, but the fashion house was not yet involved.