Comments on: Inspector General: The state of NASA’s spacesuits on ISS is becoming critical

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 21:05:58 +0000

In reply to Curtis.

Curtis: You appear to be a new commenter, so I will only issue you a warning. My commenting rules are very clear: No obscenities! Changing one letter, as you did, doesn’t work to get around these rules.

I have deleted the curse words from your comment. Please follow the rules in the future.

Why you feel a need to curse is beyond me? Why do you feel a need to debase yourself in this manner?

By: Curtis

Curtis — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:50:16 +0000

Just like NASA isn’t it? They and their partners totally [deleted] building rocket motors so they just bought Russian rocket motors for 20 years and used them in lieu of actually building any themselves and what is the obvious solution to the latest NASA failure? Why not hire the Russians to repair the station as required? I’m sure President Putin wouldn’t be greedy and demand tradesies for such a friendly act while Trump is passing targeting data to Ukraine to hit targets thousands of miles deep in Russia.
Why does anybody take NASA seriously anymore?

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 14:55:59 +0000

@Joe, best guess, the original plans for the space suits are open source. Suggest you mention to your contacts the possibility of becoming a supplier of space suits or even putting it together yourself.

By: mkent

mkent — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 22:24:31 +0000

”Words fail.”

The X-34 was cancelled for the convenience of the government. The contractor had a right to be paid for all work performed. Verifying that the work billed was actually performed before paying off an invoice is standard practice, both in the business and government contracting worlds.

By: Tom D

Tom D — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 18:12:35 +0000

Axiom has been under contract to produce versions of its Artemis AxEMU suit for use at ISS ever since Collins withdrew.

By: Mike Borgelt

Mike Borgelt — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:03:30 +0000

NASA needs to be taken behind the barn and put out of its misery.
From a comment at Rand Simberg’s Transterrestrial Musings:
“When the Goddard NASA Academy did a field trip to JSC, we got to visit the hanger where they were working on the X-34, IIRC. I posed the question “Wasn’t this program canceled?” To which the reply was “we have to verify the components delivered are to spec”. Which was quite perplexing to someone from the business world, where when a project is canceled that’s it. Done.”
Words fail.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 07:21:34 +0000

This is ridiculous. Give the specs and drawings to some other company with an in-house space-grade manufacturing capability and let them turn out the needed parts. Blue Origin, SpaceX, Impulse, Vast and Rocket Lab are an off-the-top-of-my-head list but hardly an exhaustive one. OldSpace needs to be informed in no uncertain terms that incumbency is now worth nothing and it must march or die.

By: John

John — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 01:15:37 +0000

Another failed government acquisition. Well not failed to the palace the money went. Now give them more money.

By: Richard M

Richard M — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 23:40:03 +0000

Well, that’s alarming. To put it mildly.

“With no replacement suits available, it is possible that NASA will soon find itself unable to do any spacewalks on its half of the station.”

Difficult to escape this conclusion, alas.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 23:23:30 +0000

So Collins cannot even replicate parts that have Benn in existence for decades. Why do they still have a contract? Why has no one been fired over this? I know several manufacturers who, given the original plans, could have spec parts assembled and ready to go in less than a year. Especially for the kind of money Collins’s (and NASA) just flushed away.

Of course cost overruns are a feature, not a bug.