Of the suit he wore on the moon, Neil Armstrong wrote, “it was tough, reliable, and almost cuddly.” But that cuddly suit, made by the company Playtex, had some stiff competition (literally) from rival rigid, metal designs. This video features archival NASA footage of mobility tests for several spacesuit prototypes. Music is from the band One Ring Zero’s album “Planets”.

Credits Music courtesy One Ring Zero. Footage courtesy NASA, and thanks to Nicholas de Monchaux. Produced by Katherine Wells.