The new spacesuits will be used on the ISS and during upcoming missions to the Moon.
new suits to wear on the International Space Station, as well as during future journeys to the Moon and possibly Mars. The space agency announced today that it i
s awarding contracts to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to build the suits, worth a potential combined value of $3.5 billion. The contracts allow the two companies to compete for NASA’s task orders through 2034. The first orders are for suits to be worn by astronauts on the ISS and for astronauts taking part in the planned
, with the ISS being used as a sort of testbed for the lunar missions. The agency also has the option to add more vendors to the contract as the private space engineering market evolves.“Spacesuits have been a critical part of every part of our human spaceflight programs,” Lindsay Aitchison, program executive for Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program at NASA, said during a press briefing held earlier today.
investigating the faulty spacesuits and devising mitigation techniques to alleviate the issue until the new spacesuits are available for use, according to Aitchison.