Editing Extravehicular Mobility Unit (section)

{{Short description|Series of semi-rigid two-piece United States space suit models since 1982}}
[[File:STS-118 EVA EMU Suit.jpg|thumb|200px|The Enhanced EMU Suit. The suits are white to reflect heat and to stand out against the blackness of space; the red stripes serve to differentiate astronauts.]]

The '''Extravehicular Mobility Unit''' ('''EMU''') is an independent [[spacesuit]] that provides environmental protection, mobility, life support, and communications for astronauts performing [[extravehicular activity]] (EVA) in [[Geocentric orbit|Earth orbit]]. Introduced in 1982, it is a two-piece semi-rigid suit, and is one of two types of EVA spacesuits used by crew members on the [[International Space Station]] (ISS), the other being the Russian [[Orlan space suit]]. It was used by [[NASA]]'s [[Space Shuttle]] astronauts prior to the [[Retirement of the Space Shuttle|end]] of the [[Space Shuttle program| Shuttle program]] in [[2011 in spaceflight|2011]].