The history of the American spacesuit may be missing a chapter if NASA doesn’t change its plans.

While all the previous iterations of the suit — from John Glenn’s to Gene Cernan’s — are on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, the model used in the most recent spacewalks is not for a number of reasons, according to CollectSpace, a website about preserving the history of space exploration.

First, it’s a fashion issue. NASA splurged on custom spacesuit couture for the Grissoms and the Armstrongs, but later switched to off-the-rack separates that are mixed and matched to assemble outfits for crew members on one mission, then are remixed and rematched to fit the next crew on the next mission. That makes attributing a particular suit to a particular spacewalk or an individual astronaut is hardly possible, the writer explains....