Astronauts wear orange Advanced Crew Escape Suits for emergencies and white suits for spacewalks, which reflect heat and make them easier to see. The orange suit has a parachute and knife, while the white suit has gloves with heaters.
When astronauts are launched into space and return to Earth, they wear an orange space suit called an Advanced Crew Escape Suit, or ACES for short. The bright color makes it easy to find and save them in an emergency. But when NASA astronauts dress up for extravehicular activity, known in NASA parlance as EVA, they wear white suits, which reflect the sun’s heat. This is absolutely necessary, as temperatures during spacewalks can reach as high as 250°F (121°C). These bulkier white suits also make astronauts easier to see against the black backdrop of space. Since spacewalks are always done in pairs, one of the suits will have red stripes in four places, for ease of identification.
All the comforts of home:
The orange suit is equipped with a parachute and a knife. A lanyard activates the parachute located on the astronaut’s back. The knife is provided in case the parachute cords could snag the astronaut.
The EVA space suit has two pairs of gloves. The pair closest to the skin wick sweat away and inside each fingertip are thermoformed heaters to provide extra protection in extremely cold situations.
Wearing a space suit is called “wearing the suit”. Taking off the suit is called “undressing”.
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