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With the initial construction of the International Space Station (ISS) underway, NASA has increased the number of astronauts to meet the demands of such a large construction effort. Both American astronauts and international partners will use NASA's space suit, the Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) to construct ISS. An increasing number of these new astronauts are females who do not adequately fit in the existing sizes of the EMU. In order to accommodate these astronauts, a smaller version of the EMU is under development. This development will examine all aspects of the EMU and design and fabricate new components to provide the astronauts with a space suit which provides adequate fit and is highly mobile.

The continuous development of Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuit gloves has lead to an effective solution for performing EVA to date. Some aspects of the current EVA gloves have been noted to affect crew performance in the form of limited dexterity and accelerated onset of fatigue from high torque mobility joints. This in conjunction with the fact that more frequent and complex EVAs will occur with the fabrication and occupation of Space Station Freedom, suggest the need for improved spacesuit gloves. Therefore, several efforts have been conducted in the recent past to enhance the performance of the spacesuit glove. The following is a description of the work performed in these programs and their impact on the design and performance of EVA equipment. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, a spacesuit glove design was developed that focused on building a more conformal glove with improved mobility joints that could function well at a higher operating pressure.