Space Suits: The Moon and Beyond

NASA's first spacesuits were developed for the Mercury program. Mercury was the first time NASA astronauts flew into space. These early spacesuit designs were based on pressure suits worn by U.S. Navy pilots. Since astronauts did not do spacewalks then, the Mercury suits were worn only inside the spacecraft.

Spacesuits designed for the Apollo program had to do things the first suits did not. These spacesuits had to protect astronauts from the Moon’s harsh conditions, ranging from temperature extremes to prolonged exposure to harmful radiation from the Sun.

More than 45 years since we last set foot on the Moon, NASA’s Artemis program willreturn astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024, including the first woman and next man.With our goal of sending humans to Mars, Artemis is the first step to begin this next eraof exploration.NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will send crew aboard the Orion spacecraft todeep space and usher in a new era of space exploration.The spacecraft will take us farther than we’ve gone before, and dock with the Gatewayin orbit around the Moon. Orion will carry up to four crew members and is designed tosupport astronauts traveling hundreds of thousands of miles from home, where gettingback to Earth takes days rather than hours.Both distance and duration demand Orion to have systems that can reliably operate farfrom home, be capable of keeping astronauts alive in case of emergencies and still belight enough that a rocket can launch it.