Engineers have had to come up with some interesting ways to generate oxygen for astronauts in the vacuum of space.

On Earth, breathing is effortless because oxygen is everywhere. But in space, there is none. Astronauts rely on carefully designed systems to survive. Their lives depend on oxygen supplies and backup ...

This story appears in the July 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine. Space suits—designed to provide oxygen and consistent atmospheric pressure—have evolved from pressure suits for ...

back to the top- Spacesuits for the space shuttle era are pressurized at 4.3 pounds per square inch (psi), but because the gas in the suit is 100 percent oxygen instead of 20 percent, the person ...