HOUSTON/MILAN, Oct. 4, 2023 – In the first groundbreaking partnership between an Italian luxury fashion house and a commercial space company, Axiom Space, industry leader and architect of the world’s first commercial space station, announces a collaboration with Prada on NASA's lunar spacesuits for the Artemis III mission.

As the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972, this Artemis mission, planned for 2025, will also be the first to place a woman on the Moon. "We are thrilled to partner with Prada on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit," said Michael Suffredini, CEO of Axiom Space. "Prada's technical expertise with raw materials, manufacturing techniques, and innovative design concepts will bring advanced technologies instrumental in ensuring not only the comfort of astronauts on the lunar surface, but also the much-needed human factors considerations absent from legacy spacesuits."

Prada’s engineers will work alongside the Axiom Space systems team throughout the design process, developing solutions for materials and design features to protect against the unique challenge of space and the lunar environment. “The constantly forward-thinking ethos of Prada for humanity has broadened to his desire of adventure and to brave new horizons: space,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Marketing Director. “We are honored to be a part of this historic mission with Axiom Space. Our decades of experimentation, cutting-edge technology and design know-how – which started back in the ‘90s with Luna Rossa challenging for the America’s cup – will now be applied to the design of a spacesuit for the Artemis era. It is a true celebration of the power of human creativity and innovation to advance civilization.”

The AxEMU spacesuit will provide astronauts with advanced capabilities for space exploration, while offering NASA commercially developed human systems needed to access, live and work on and around the Moon. Evolving NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) spacesuit design, the Axiom Space spacesuits are created to provide increased flexibility, greater protection to withstand the harsh environment, and specialized tools for exploration and scientific opportunities. Using innovative technologies and design, these spacesuits will enable greater exploration of the lunar surface than ever before. The development of these next-generation spacesuits is a significant milestone in furthering space exploration, and enabling a deeper understanding of the Moon, the solar system, and beyond.

ABOUT AXIOM SPACE

Axiom Space is building for beyond, guided by the vision of a thriving home in space that benefits every human, everywhere. The leading provider of human spaceflight services and developer of human-rated space infrastructure, Axiom Space operates end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while developing its successor, Axiom Station – the world’s first commercial space station in low-Earth orbit, which will sustain human growth off the planet and bring untold benefits back home.

ABOUT PRADA

Prada is a luxury fashion house founded in Milan, Italy, in 1913. The brand is universally renowned for its design innovation, blending time-honored craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology in a fusion of tradition and newness. Prada offers a wide range of products, including clothing, accessories, and fragrances, and has a network of stores spanning the globe. Across its contemporary history, Prada has partnered with a range of artists, designers and innovators, including Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron, Damien Hirst, Nicolas Winding Refn and Wes Anderson to create unique and ground-breaking immersive experiences, fashion pieces and campaigns. Prada is committed to sustainability and has implemented a number of initiatives to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials and production methods throughout its supply chains. The Prada brand is part of Prada Group, a global leader in the luxury goods industry, which owns some of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands including Miu Miu, Church's, Car Shoe, the historic Pasticceria Marchesi and Luna Rossa.

Source: Axiom Space

Houston-based company Axiom Space and Poland, with support from the European Space Agency (ESA), have signed an agreement to send an ESA astronaut to space on a future Axiom Space mission. The exact mission and name of the Polish astronaut will be officially announced at a later date, following approval by NASA and its international partners.

“Poland will be the second ESA-sponsored nation to send an astronaut on a commercial human spaceflight mission, establishing a growing network of nations in Europe eager to explore the benefits of microgravity and positioning the region as pioneers of commercial space,” said Michael Suffredini, Axiom Space president and CEO. “We are excited to work with Poland and ESA to build a comprehensive mission plan in support of both national and agency objectives, and we look forward to bringing on additional partner nations around the world in an effort to build the human experience in low-Earth orbit.”

The ESA astronaut selected for the mission will focus on scientific research and educational outreach while on orbit. In coordination with ESA, Axiom Space will manage all aspects required for the preparation and completion of the mission, including access to training facilities and instructors, hardware and safety certification, on-orbit management, and post-mission support. As the crew provider, ESA will sign an agreement with Axiom Space to define and implement the mission objectives and prepare for all the operational services needed.

“Cooperation with ESA and Axiom Space is an important step in the development of both the Polish space sector and science,” said Waldemar Buda, Minister of Economic Development and Technology of Poland. “A Polish astronaut will have the opportunity to test the most advanced Polish technologies. For our companies, this is a unique opportunity to gain flight heritage, which will be a proof of the quality of Polish products. The educational aspect is also important for us, as we hope it will result in the interest of many young people in the space sector.”

ESA’s Director General Josef Asbacher praised Poland’s decision to invest funds in not only the ESA astronaut program, but also several other ESA activities. “This reinforced engagement will enable new possibilities for Poland to lift its capabilities in the fast-emerging domain of space,” Asbacher said, “while the cooperation with Axiom Space opens new opportunities for our ESA astronauts.”

In April 2023, Axiom Space and the Swedish National Space Agency signed a letter of intent to send an ESA astronaut to the ISS. Through this agreement, the upcoming Axiom Space mission, Ax-3 now targeting launch in January 2024, will be the first commercial mission to the ISS to include an ESA project astronaut.

Axiom Space is the commercial space industry’s only full-service orbital mission provider, conducting end-to-end crewed missions to the ISS. The expert team at Axiom Space is helping nations and organizations build human spaceflight programs, develop astronaut selection programs, and provide the expertise needed to expand the international community of space explorers to a larger and more diverse representation of humanity.

Source: Axiom Space

Axiom Space announced today that NASA has awarded the Houston-based company an International Space Station (ISS) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuit task order, with an initial commitment of $5 million and a potential value of $142 million over four years, to modify its Artemis III lunar spacesuit design for advancing NASA’s ISS spacewalking capabilities.

This is the second spacesuit task order to be awarded to Axiom Space by NASA, the first being the $228 million task order in 2022 to develop the lunar spacesuit for the Artemis III mission back to the Moon. The new NASA task order further enables Axiom Space to take advantage of its plans to use a single, foundational architecture to complete the designs of the two spacesuits in parallel, one for the ISS and one for the lunar surface.

The Axiom Space low-Earth orbit (LEO) spacesuit effort is already underway for use on the world’s first commercial space station, Axiom Station, being designed to serve the next generation of private space explorers from around the world.

“We are excited to add our orbital spacesuits as an option for NASA,” said Mark Greeley, Axiom Space EVA Program Manager. “The team is truly humbled to be a provider of spacesuits for the NASA Artemis missions and now a developer of spacesuits for future ISS missions. Aligning our spacesuit architecture for commercial LEO, lunar, and ISS is proving to be of great benefit in terms of streamlining designs and continuing to deliver the best value to NASA, while serving our future commercial astronauts on Axiom Station by the end of the decade.”

Similar to the Artemis III spacesuit, the Axiom Space ISS suit will be built to accommodate a wide range of crew members and provide increased flexibility and specialized tools. The design includes life support systems, pressure garments, and power avionics and communication. The Axiom Space team will offer design, certification and hardware to support EVA systems training and real-time operations support to NASA, among other services.

“Imagining astronauts performing EVAs outside the ISS wearing Axiom Space spacesuits, borne from the original NASA design, would honor everyone who ever worked on the NASA suits of the past and those who are working on the NASA spacesuits of the future,” said Russell Ralston, Axiom Space EVA Deputy Program Manager.

Both spacesuit task orders awarded to Axiom Space fall under NASA’s Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract, which enables Axiom Space to compete for contracts that will provide a full suite of capabilities for NASA’s spacewalking needs during the period of performance through 2034. The milestone-based xEVAS contract has a combined maximum potential value of $3.5 billion for all task order awards.

Source: Axiom Space

The Ax-2 crew aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft safely splashed down off the coast of Florida at 11:04 p.m. EDT on May 30, 2023. The crew’s return officially concludes the second all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Ax-2 crew includes Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, from the Saudi Space Commission (SSC). Both are members of the inaugural Saudi national astronaut class. 

The Ax-2 crew spent eight days aboard the ISS, orbited the Earth 126 times, and traveled 3,331,440 miles. During the mission, the Ax-2 crew conducted more than 20 research experiments and served as research subjects to better understand the impacts of microgravity on the human body, as well as established methods for the utility of novel technologies that could be used for future human spaceflight pursuits and improving life on Earth. Additionally, the crew carried out over 20 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math) engagements.

The Ax-2 mission made history on many fronts. Ax-2 was the first commercial mission with both private and government-sponsored astronauts. Peggy Whitson is now the first female commander of a private space mission, adding to her accomplishment as the first female commander of the ISS and standing record for the longest cumulative time in space by an American astronaut (674 days). Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi are the first Saudi astronauts to visit the ISS and Rayyanah Barnawi is the first Saudi female to go to space. In addition, John Shoffner became the first person from the U.S. state of Alaska to fly to space.

Axiom Space is the commercial space industry's only full-service orbital mission provider, conducting end-to-end crewed missions to the International Space Station. Axiom Space's broad range of services includes training and flying private astronauts, access to training facilities and instructors, hardware and safety certification, and operational on-orbit management. Candidates for flight complete Axiom Space's rigorous training curriculum over many months in preparation to live and conduct meaningful work in space. The expert team at Axiom Space is helping nations and organizations build human spaceflight programs, develop astronaut selection programs, and provide the expertise needed to expand the international community of space explorers to a larger and more diverse representation of humanity.    

Source: Axiom Space