NASA astronauts will venture to the coldest realms of the moon — the dark craters of the lunar south pole. "Some deep craters haven’t seen the light of day for billions of years, so temperatures there can dip to minus 334 Fahrenheit," the space agency said. "That’s nearly three times colder than the lowest temperature recorded in Antarctica."

The suit is far more elaborate than the long-ago Mercury model and far more expensive, the product of a $228-million contract NASA issued to Axiom in 2022. But there is good reason for the bump in price and complexity: as early as the end of 2026,