Prada Spacesuits Are Another Houston Innovation — One Small Stitch for Astronauts, One Giant Leap for Moon Fashion

As NASA gears up for its 2027 Artemis III mission, it’s not just about rockets and moon landings. The mission will put the first woman on the moon and send astronauts to explore the lunar South Pole. But the Houston-based company Axiom Space is focused on one small stitch at a time for the mission’s spacesuits. In developing its Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, the space infrastructure company brought on an unlikely partner in its high-flying pursuits: Prada.    

Michelle Stein, a senior program manager for Axiom Space’s partner KBR, has been designing spacesuits for 25 years. She says the the Italian fashion house has more in common with the space startup than one might expect. Both Axiom Space and Prada share a passion for design and a commitment to quality controls, which made them ideal partners for creating the AxEMU spacesuit’s cover layer. The teams frequently traveled between Milan and Houston to exchange ideas and learn from each other’s approaches to suit construction.

“Prada is a perfect collaboration,” Stein says. “A lot of people scratch their heads, asking ‘How can a fashion house help with spacesuit design?’ But if you look at our production and theirs, it’s very similar.”

As they built the spacesuit, Stein and her teams learned from Prada’s designers that fashion and function go hand in hand. They showed how to construct seams from angles, which adds flexibility. Since NASA astronauts will wear the suits during strenuous eight-hour missions in extremely cold temperatures, comfort and mobility are top priorities.

A Material World

Beyond contributing to the suit’s outer design, Prada’s team also helped Axiom Space source specialized materials. Axiom Space’s challenge is creating spacesuits that fit astronauts across a broad height range — from the 1st to the 99th percentile. Stein says this range is something that has never been done before. Axiom Space’s suits will now fit astronauts as small as 4-feet-10 inches tall — good news for the short queens and kings.  

Falanne Jenkins, a sewing technician with Axiom Space’ s partner KBR, says working with Prada’s detail-oriented designers improved the prototyping process. For Jenkins, learning new sewing techniques from Prada’s experts was among the most rewarding moments of the production process.

“It was an honor for me to work with Prada,” Jenkins tells PaperCity. “I’m working on a fashion design degree in my spare time, so this access is a cool opportunity that most people never get.”

Outside The Galaxy Thinking

Axiom Space’s sewing lab is full of surprises. The startup recruits sewing technicians from a range of diverse backgrounds. Before joining Axiom Space two years ago, Jenkins built spaceflight hardware as an avionics technician for NASA, and she sewed as a hobby. Stein reveals that other sewing technicians worked in theatre, Cirque du Soleil and even for Calvin Klein Underwear. Their varied credentials help Axiom Space approach and troubleshoot the spacesuit from different angles — much like how Prada’s designers guided the engineering team. 

“We have people who professionally made Santa suits for high-end places,” Stein says. “Anywhere there are seamstresses, we’ve found them and brought them here.”

In addition to Prada, Axiom Space is enhancing the AxEMU spacesuit with help from other collaborators. Oakley developed the protective coating for the helmet’s visor. Nokia is providing high-speed cellular network connections for the suit. GU Energy Labs is working on a nutrition system.

Prada’s designers continue to work alongside Axiom Space’s engineers and technicians, helping with fabrication techniques and sharing insights into materials science as they put final touches on the suit.

For the latest updates about the AxEMU spacesuit, go here.