Axiom Space and Prada have introduced the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG), the innermost layer of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit—designed to sit directly against an astronaut’s body during humanity’s return to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. Unveiled in New York City, the LCVG extends a partnership that began in 2024 with the AxEMU’s outer layer, now shifting from the suit’s visible exterior into its most intimate and technically demanding interior system.

At its core, the LCVG is about comfort in extreme conditions—specifically thermal balance during long-duration lunar exploration. On an eight-hour spacewalk, astronauts generate intense metabolic heat as they move across the Moon’s surface. The garment responds like a finely tuned climate system worn on the body, circulating cold water through a network of tubes mapped across major muscle groups. This hidden layer absorbs heat and channels it into the suit’s portable life-support system, where it is released into space.

What makes this system notable is its built-in resilience. The Axiom Space LCVG features a fully redundant cooling circuit, meaning a backup activates automatically if the primary loop fails. On a lunar terrain where return is not immediate, that redundancy becomes less of a technical upgrade and more of a necessity woven into everyday survival.

Running in parallel is the ventilation system, designed to maintain a continuous sense of breathable ease inside an otherwise sealed environment. A separate loop delivers fresh oxygen across the face while simultaneously clearing exhaled carbon dioxide in real time. That CO2 is processed through the life-support scrubber before oxygen cycles back again. Together, cooling and ventilation work seamlessly throughout the full duration of a spacewalk that can last up to eight hours.

Prada’s contribution brings a fashion-house sensibility to a deeply technical environment—focusing on materiality, construction, and comfort under pressure. Using expertise in engineered knitting and advanced 3D modeling, Prada helped shape a garment that performs like aerospace hardware while feeling considered against the body during extended wear.

The brand also played a role in sourcing specialized high-performance fibers designed to endure repeated use across long-duration missions. In deep space, durability becomes part of design language itself; a garment must not only function flawlessly but also maintain its integrity across multiple deployments. Creating a cooling layer that retains its properties over time required a material approach more often associated with luxury performance wear than traditional aerospace systems.

“Every minute astronauts spend outside their vehicle, the LCVG is working to keep them safe,” said Russell Ralston, Axiom Space Senior Vice President of Spacecraft Development. “It manages their thermal environment, supports their breathing, and does it all while they’re pushing their bodies to the limit. The work we have done with Prada has taken that capability to a level we could not have achieved alone.” The collaboration, which first proved itself in the AxEMU’s outer layer in 2024, now extends inward—showing how design thinking can translate across both visible and invisible layers of spacewear, where performance and precision quietly define the experience.

The Prada x Axiom Space LCVG will be worn by astronauts during NASA’s Artemis IV mission, marking another step in humanity’s return to the Moon after more than half a century.