The Axiom space suit is key to the company’s commercial space services. This new NASA contract allows Axiom to build space suits that will serve the company’s commercial customers and the space station’s future goals while meeting NASA’s exploration and ISS needs.
“Our innovative approach to xEVAS space suits provides NASA with a scalable design that enables cost-effective real-time development, testing, training, deployment, and operations to address a variety of EVA needs and operational scenarios for a variety of customers. , including NASA, “said Michael Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom Space. “We are thrilled that NASA recognizes the value that Axiom Space offers through a range of human spaceflight activities, from our recent private astronaut mission to the ISS to the design and development of the Axiom station, and now to provide this critical system and associated services for astronauts at LEO and beyond. “
Axiom Space has partnered with a strong team of industry experts on this contract, including KBR, Air-Lock, David Clark Company, Paragon Space Development Corporation, Sophic Synergistics and APT Research.
The firm fixed price contract is structured as an indefinite amount of indefinite delivery amount (IDIQ) over a 10-year order period and allows for an additional two years for termination of services. Authorization to carry out work under the xEVAS contract will be made by issuing NASA work orders not exceeding $ 3.1 million with a ceiling of $ 3.5 million for all services .
Axiom’s xEVAS space suits will be designed to accommodate a wide range of crew members. Based on NASA’s xEMU space suit design, Axiom space suits are designed to provide greater flexibility and specialized tools to meet exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities in space. The design of xEVAS space suits includes life support, pressure garments and avionics. The Axiom Space team will provide training in EVA systems and support for real-time operations at NASA, among other services.
NASA may request IDIQ services at any time after the contract begins with a performance period beginning in June 2022 and ending in June 2032. No phasing-in period is anticipated, and work will be managed at Axiom facilities in Houston.
This victory in the NASA contract is the latest in Axiom Space’s list of recent successes in its efforts to grow the commercial space industry. Earlier this month, Axiom Space celebrated the inauguration of the company’s new long-term headquarters at Houston Spaceport, which will host the development and construction of Axiom Space Station, the world’s first commercial space station. Axiom Space also recently welcomed home the crew of Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) after successfully completing the first fully private astronaut mission on the ISS. The company has also signed agreements with several nations, including Italy, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fly on future space missions.
Axiom Space was founded in Houston in 2016 by space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian and Michael Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager from 2005 to 2015, to build the world’s first commercial space station and develop a commercial space infrastructure that will drive a thriving economy in low Earth orbit. The company currently employs more than 500 people, most of whom work at its current Houston facility, and will increase the number to more than 1,000 by 2023.
About Axiom Space Axiom Space, the leading provider of human spaceflight services and developer of human-qualified space infrastructure, is guided by the vision of a prosperous home in space that benefits all human beings, everywhere. Axiom is opening new markets in low Earth orbit through end-to-end missions to the International Space Station as it privately develops its successor: a permanent commercial destination in Earth orbit that will keep human growth off the planet and will bring incalculable benefits at home. . You can find more information about Axiom and its generational mission at www.axiomspace.com
SOURCE Axiom Space