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NASA may not have new spacesuits in time for Moon landing
The watchdog says NASA’s contract choices and suit interface issues could force a fallback to older gear and raise costs for lunar missions.
- On Monday, the NASA Office of Inspector General warned that spacesuit delays could push the 2028 Artemis moon landing into the 2030s, with suits potentially unavailable until 2031.
- NASA allocated $3.1 billion to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace in 2022, but the agency's firm-fixed-price strategy conflicted with the developmental nature of the equipment, leading Collins Aerospace to drop out in 2024.
- Testing new suits on the International Space Station is planned before 2030, yet without standard interfaces, commercial designs may require costly hardware adjustments to the Blue Moon lander.
- NASA could appoint new suppliers, with SpaceX, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and ILC Dover working on alternatives, or risk reverting to the 'problematic' Extravehicular Mobility Unit suits if Axiom fails to meet deadlines.
- Delays threaten Artemis IV and subsequent missions to the moon or Mars, a situation Cathleen Lewis of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum described as the space suit being "historically, the last piece of the human spaceflight puzzle.
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Dark Clouds Over US 2028 Manned Moon Landing Plan Due to Delays in Next-Generation Spacesuit Development. A variable has emerged regarding NASA's 2028 manned moon landing plan. It has been pointed out that NASA's entire moon return project could be affected as the schedule for the newly developed spacesuit continues to be delayed.
Artemis spacesuit development risks further delays
New spacesuits for Artemis lunar missions and the International Space Station may not be ready until after the end of the decade, a report by NASA’s inspector general warns. The post Artemis spacesuit development risks further delays appeared first on SpaceNews.
·Mojave, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources12
Leaning Left4Leaning Right1Center2Last UpdatedBias Distribution57% Left
Bias Distribution
- 57% of the sources lean Left
57% Left
L 57%
C 29%
14%
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