The costumes will also be worn by crew members who live and work on the International Space Station. The orbiting laboratory is not only a testing ground for space exploration, but also new technologies.
The contracts were awarded by NASA as part of its trade partnership growth strategy.
Both companies have been selected to advance the development of the next generation of space suits. Depending on how the two companies deliver their suits and their space-walking abilities, one company could prevail over the other. This flexibility has been incorporated into the task awards as both companies progress in product development.
“With these awards, NASA and our partners will develop advanced, reliable space suits that allow humans to explore the cosmos like never before,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement.
“By partnering with the industry, we are efficiently advancing the technology needed to keep Americans on a path of successful discovery on the International Space Station and while we focus on exploring the lunar surface.”
The Artemis program aims to land the first woman and the first person of color at the lunar south pole in 2025 and finally prepare for manned missions to Mars.
NASA experts have developed the required technical and safety standards for space suits. Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace will design, develop and produce the costumes and any equipment needed for the space station crew and Artemis astronauts.
“The existing space suit has been the workhorse for the agency for 40 years and helped maintain and use the International Space Station as well as build it,” said Dina Contella, Integration Manager. NASA International Space Station program operations.
“We will make an orderly transition from our existing space suit to the new space suit. We look forward to working with suppliers as partners and bringing the ISS and its space suits into the modern era, and then helping the agency to his way to the moon “.
The costumes are expected to be ready by the mid-2020s. The new costumes and their capabilities “will help us explore more of the moon than we’ve ever had,” said Lindsay Aitchison, program executive. extravehicular activity and mobility of NASA’s human surface.
“We will be able to test these capabilities and they will be tested before our astronauts are used in orbit or on the surface of the Moon,” Wyche said.
The first steps involve the two companies delivering costumes for the demonstration outside the space station, as well as for the landing on the moon of Artemis III.
“Our trade partners will help us achieve our human exploration goals,” Mark Kirasich, associate associate director of NASA’s Artemis Campaign Development Division, said in a statement.
“We hope to use these services for NASA’s continued presence in low Earth orbit and our forthcoming achievement of returning American astronauts to the surface of the Moon.”
The contracts support everything needed for spacewalks until 2034. The agency is sharing flight and ground test data from previous space exits and the project to develop the vehicle’s exploration extravehicular mobility unit. NASA with Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace.
Previously, the development project was going to design the costumes.
A report released in 2021 by NASA inspector general Paul K. Martin said the agency’s goal of returning U.S. astronauts to the moon in 2024 was not feasible due to significant delays in the development of space suits.
Although NASA will have spent more than $ 1 billion on next-generation space suits, Martin concluded that “the suits would not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest.” “years from now.”
“I really think all of this data helps reduce the risk and speed up this transition process to the contractor community,” said Lara Kearney, NASA’s extra-vehicular activity and human surface mobility program manager.
According to officials, the contract has a maximum combined potential value of $ 3.5 billion for all assignment orders.
“Not only are we meeting NASA’s goals, but we’re also helping to support and encourage an emerging space economy so that in the future it’s not just about NASA’s extra-vehicle activity services, but there will be a series of customers who will be able to buy it in the future, “Aitchison said.
The two companies have also invested their own money in the development of the costumes and will own the space suits.
“The public-private partnership is really a benefit for NASA and will allow us to have the ability to use it, and they will have it so that they can provide it to non-NASA customers,” Wyche said. .
“So it’s a shared investment where we both get something out of it.”