NASA’s IG: With only Axiom building NASA’s future spacesuits, the agency’s lunar program faces great scheduling risk
Axiom’s two spacesuits being tested underwater in October 2025.
Click for original.
According to NASA’s inspector general’s report today [pdf] on the state of NASA’s effort to create new spacesuits for use by its astronauts on future space stations as well as in its Artemis lunar program, the planned schedules for the lunar landing and those stations are threatened because the agency presently has only one contractor, Axiom, building new suits, and has not established any spacesuit standardization rules should it want to issue contracts to others. From the report’s conclusion:
While NASA is taking steps to mitigate schedule risk, it must also contend with the unique risks inherent to a single-provider environment until future competition is introduced. … If Axiom cannot satisfy its contractual requirements in a timely or cost-effective manner, then NASA could be forced to continue using the problematic EMUs throughout the life of the ISS and significantly adjust its lunar plans. [EMUs are the complex suits presently used on ISS, and would not work well for any lunar landing mission.]
While xEVAS [the new suit concept] is flexible enough to allow for additional providers, doing so may not help the Agency meet its more immediate Artemis goals. Critically, NASA must address existing design and safety risks resulting from the lack of standard requirements for spacesuits to be compatible with various lunar spacecraft and assets.
As shown by the photo above, the development of Axiom’s spacesuit has been proceeding, and seems likely to be available for next year’s Artemis-3 Earth orbit test mission. At the same time, it is still behind schedule, a fact that has been mitigated because NASA’s entire Artemis program is equally behind schedule.
The report lists three commercial companies that might be able to provide alternative suits, and thus some redundancy, as shown by the image below.
SpaceX’s suits, while already tested during a spacewalk (by NASA’s own administrator Jared Isaacman), would need major upgrades, as they get their power and oxygen through an umbilical cable. They are not capable yet of operating independently.
ILC Dover’s suit is based on extensive past work, so it is possible it could be developed quickly.
The most interesting of these three options is the design being proposed by Genesis. Rather than a spacesuit, it is a pod similar to the pod seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Designed as a less complex, more efficient, and safer alternative to traditional spacesuits, this spacecraft would not require an airlock, could be piloted by crew in the vehicle or teleoperated from the ISS, and would utilize the same pressure as the Station—avoiding the need for lengthy prebreathe processes astronauts must perform prior to using EMUs.
Whether such a single-person spacecraft would work either on the Moon or to do delicate repair or installation work on future space stations remains unclear. I suspect its usefullness will be limited, but who knows?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Axiom’s two spacesuits being tested underwater in October 2025.
Click for original.
According to NASA’s inspector general’s report today [pdf] on the state of NASA’s effort to create new spacesuits for use by its astronauts on future space stations as well as in its Artemis lunar program, the planned schedules for the lunar landing and those stations are threatened because the agency presently has only one contractor, Axiom, building new suits, and has not established any spacesuit standardization rules should it want to issue contracts to others. From the report’s conclusion:
While NASA is taking steps to mitigate schedule risk, it must also contend with the unique risks inherent to a single-provider environment until future competition is introduced. … If Axiom cannot satisfy its contractual requirements in a timely or cost-effective manner, then NASA could be forced to continue using the problematic EMUs throughout the life of the ISS and significantly adjust its lunar plans. [EMUs are the complex suits presently used on ISS, and would not work well for any lunar landing mission.]
While xEVAS [the new suit concept] is flexible enough to allow for additional providers, doing so may not help the Agency meet its more immediate Artemis goals. Critically, NASA must address existing design and safety risks resulting from the lack of standard requirements for spacesuits to be compatible with various lunar spacecraft and assets.
As shown by the photo above, the development of Axiom’s spacesuit has been proceeding, and seems likely to be available for next year’s Artemis-3 Earth orbit test mission. At the same time, it is still behind schedule, a fact that has been mitigated because NASA’s entire Artemis program is equally behind schedule.
The report lists three commercial companies that might be able to provide alternative suits, and thus some redundancy, as shown by the image below.
SpaceX’s suits, while already tested during a spacewalk (by NASA’s own administrator Jared Isaacman), would need major upgrades, as they get their power and oxygen through an umbilical cable. They are not capable yet of operating independently.
ILC Dover’s suit is based on extensive past work, so it is possible it could be developed quickly.
The most interesting of these three options is the design being proposed by Genesis. Rather than a spacesuit, it is a pod similar to the pod seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Designed as a less complex, more efficient, and safer alternative to traditional spacesuits, this spacecraft would not require an airlock, could be piloted by crew in the vehicle or teleoperated from the ISS, and would utilize the same pressure as the Station—avoiding the need for lengthy prebreathe processes astronauts must perform prior to using EMUs.
Whether such a single-person spacecraft would work either on the Moon or to do delicate repair or installation work on future space stations remains unclear. I suspect its usefullness will be limited, but who knows?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Interesting concept from Genesis Engineering but it seems a bit impractical in that form. SpaceX has a long way to go but if they have a team fast tracking suit design, they may be able to get something working in short order.
On ISS, the Genesis “pod” might well be useful as designed. On the Moon it would need to add, at a minimum, a tracked or wheeled chassis of some sort making it, in essence, a single-place manned rover. It would also need longer arms and probably more of them to enable reach of anything in its immediate vicinity including on the ground at wheel/track-level. Either that or arms mounted on a circumferential turret to allow them to be oriented in any direction.
ILC Dover was Collins’s partner on the Artemis spacesuit contract before it withdrew from the project. If ILC Dover, on its own, could whistle up a new spacesuit on short notice one would think it would have done so already and saved Collins’s bid. The IG seems to be barking up a very dubious tree here.
SpaceX’s EVA suit needs a “backpack” to allow autonomous operation and perhaps some additional attention to leg mobility. To counter lunar dust, a single-use outer “coverall” analogous to a clean room bunny suit would allow quick use of an only moderately more developed version of this suit soon enough for early Artemis missions. These could be left outside after each surface excursion. Not a long-term solution, but a decent “cheat” while a longer-term, more durable solution is being developed. SpaceX is likely nearer to ready with a minimum viable suit than perhaps even Axiom as it has its own lunar plans and is certainly capable of handling its own suit needs.
Overall, score maybe 1.5 out of three for the NASA IG.
OT: It’s been over 36 hours since SpaceX’s 17-22 Starlink launch from Vandenberg SFB. Why no post about it yet? SpaceX is due to launch a GPS bird from FL just before midnight tonight. Can we expect a post about both in tomorrow’s material?
Dick: I thought I had did it but I confused 17-27 and 17-22. I am doing a Coast-2-Coast thing for the next 20 minutes. Will get it up after.
Dick: At the same time, it would be nice if you sounded less indignant and demanding about this. In fact, it would have been far more helpful if you had emailed me directly. Many others do it. The goal should be to help me, not try to make me look bad. :)
Robert Zimmerman,
You already looked bad. I mean getting ninja-ed by more than a day by Wiki-freakin’-pedia? I was just trying to help you keep from looking even worse. :)
Oh yeah, anent indignant and demanding, that booster landing on OCISLY was SpaceX’s 600th. Be sure to put that in too. :)
The Soviet era R-7 is in danger of having its 2K launch record being exceeded by Falcon landing numbers…..the best thing about Starlink.
If there actually is anything to the whole Trump/UFO file thing–for Pete’s sake–don’t release any anti-gravity/instantaneous communications secrets until SpaceX gets that win.
I am still sore Ike handed the honor of first satellite to them–stomping on the ABMA’s chances.
There is a missile museum in Florida…and those sods put a Thor on the very spot where Redstone launched America’s first satellite. Don’t tell me that wasn’t done on purpose.
Back to the topic.
I was hoping someone would re-invent the bottle-suit….if for no other reason than being able with withdraw your arms at least to shoo away any water blobs or wayward facehuggers that gets inside a helmet.
Look at the drawings in Colliers in the 1950s with the Von Braun wheel space stations, etc.
It’s the Genesis Pod!!!
The Genesis pod is a spacecraft. I would still want in a spacesuit inside of it, though. I liked that von Braun’s were a bit cone-shaped.
The bottle suits served as chairs, or could be used as that, if modified. The ones I am thinking of….lunar suits.
There was a concept for a lunar suit back in the 1960’s that sorta reminded me of the Genesis suit. Except this 1960 suit had legs under the “pod” portion. A little quick research shows it is the 1962 Space General / Grumman moon suit.
Don’t know if this is going to work but going to try to paste a picture here.
If no work then here is a link with a picture
https://sgcmoonsuit.blogspot.com/p/home.html