Astronauts on the international space station use a specialized suit called the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU, to work outside the space station safely.
The suits were delivered to the station in the 1980s, and are in need of an upgrade. The suits made headlines earlier this year when what would be the first all female spacewalk was postponed due to a lack of sizing for the innards of one of the EMUs.
Florida Today space reporter Antonia Jarmillo wrote about the history of the suit, the challenges NASA faces upgrading the equipment and what the agency is thinking about for a future moon-mission suit -- in a piece published earlier this month. She spoke to 90.7’s Brendan Byrne about her reporting.