Kicker: New suits

NICK EICHER, HOST: After almost 50 years, NASA is planning to return to the moon. And when the new generation of American astronauts walk on the lunar surface—it’ll not be in those old duds from 1972. No, they’ll be wearing bold, dramatic, heroic new suits. 

Reminds me a little bit of The Incredibles!

INCREDIBLES: A new suit? It will be bold. Dramatic. Yeah … Heroic! Ooh, the cape and the boots! No capes!

OK, well, they never had capes. But those old astronaut suits were pretty stiff. NASA chief Jim Bridenstine says the new ones are more flexible.

BRIDENSTINE: You remember Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, they bunny hopped on the surface of the moon. Well now we’re actually going to be able to walk.

And they’re safer, too, designed to block moon dust from seeping into life support systems.

NASA plans to test them out at the International Space Station before suiting up the first woman and the next man to tread the moon by 2024.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, left, and Amy Ross speak as Kristine Dans demonstrates the ease of walking in the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), one of two NASA spacesuit ​prototypes for lunar exploration on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.