After the successful conclusion of the Artemis II mission earlier this month, focus turned to what comes next in NASA’s roadmap to return humans to the Moon. The biggest question concerned the readiness of lunar landers, the complex and essential machines needed to grab astronauts down to the lunar surface and back up to orbit. And as Ars reported at the time, both SpaceX and Blue Origin have a significant amount of developmental and testing work left to do before even a prototype lander is ready. But a secondary question has been the development of spacesuits, which are necessary for astronauts to exit their landers and explore the lunar surface. Less is publicly known about their development. However, the release of a report by NASA’s Inspector General on Monday sheds some light on this progress. And for those interested in NASA’s aggressive 2028 timeline to land humans on the Moon, it’s worth noting what the report did and did not say.
The report Broadly speaking, the new report examines the process by which NASA has gone about acquiring lunar spacesuits. For those not paying attention to spacesuit procurement—which is basically everyone with a life or without a financial interest in the matter—it has been a long and tortured process. NASA has been working internally for decades to develop a next-generation spacesuit. It has been a messy, bloated process, so the space agency decided to try something different in 2022. Following a more commercial procurement process, NASA awarded two Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contracts—firm-fixed-price, service-based contracts worth up to $3.1 billion—to teams led by Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace. Axiom was a new space company with no experience in spacesuits, and Collins was a more traditional provider with a lot of experience. However, two years later, Collins dropped out of the competition. The company had apparently not managed the contract particularly well and determined it could not continue working on spacesuits profitably. “Collins’ descope from xEVAS negated the competition and redundancy sought by the Agency, leaving NASA with only one xEVAS spacesuit provider,” the inspector general’s report finds. “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.”
COLORADO SPRINGS — Axiom Space expects to test the spacesuit it is developing for Artemis lunar missions in space in 2027, either on the International Space Station or Artemis 3. Axiom executives said at an April 13 briefing during the 41st Space Symposium that they are nearing the end of the critical design review for their Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU, spacesuit that will be worn by astronauts walking on the moon. Russell Ralston, senior vice president and general manager of extravehicular activity at Axiom, said the company is starting assembly of a qualification suit, which the company will use in upcoming tests to certify it for use in space. Those tests include vibration tests to simulate launch loads and thermal vacuum chamber tests where a person will wear the suit in pressures and temperatures like those in space. “It’s about as close as we can get to actual spaceflight on the ground, so that’s a very important test for us,” he said. The goal is to have the suit ready in 2027. NASA has discussed potentially testing the suit as part of the revised Artemis 3 mission, where Orion will remain in low Earth orbit and dock with Human Landing System (HLS) prototypes being built by Blue Origin, and SpaceX. “We’ve provided the agency with a number of options” for testing the suit on Artemis 3, Ralston said, with discussions with NASA ongoing. “It would certainly be a valuable exercise, but we just don’t have the specifics at this time.” Axiom had been working for some time with SpaceX to ensure compatible interfaces between AxEMU and the Starship lunar lander, and he said the company has recently started working with Blue Origin given the possibility its Blue Moon lander might be used on the first crewed landing mission. “So far, we’re not really tracking any major issues or difficulties,” he said of those discussions with Blue Origin and SpaceX. However, the company said it may instead test the spacesuit on the ISS. “The agency has made it clear we’re going to fly a suit next year,” said Jonathan Cirtain, president and chief executive of Axiom Space. “Is that to the International Space Station? Is that with the HLS providers? To be determined.” He said that after NASA’s “Ignition” event March 24, where the agency rolled out changes to its exploration architecture, Administrator Jared Isaacman held “confidence briefings” with key companies in Artemis, including Axiom. “I reassured him on our ability to deliver the Artemis suit should it be utilized on Artemis 3,” Cirtain said. “However, whether it’s Artemis 3 with the HLS service providers or in a free-flying demonstration to the International Space Station, the administrator made it crystal clear to me that he expects to fly our suit next year.” The two mission options would test AxEMU differently. He said that if NASA wants to test the suit in an EVA, the best option would be to do so on the ISS.
The NASA Office of Inspector General, the aerospace agency’s auditor, fears that work on next-generation spacesuits won’t finish in time to use them for the planned Artemis III Moon landing mission in 2028. In a report [PDF] published on Monday, the Inspector General points out that NASA kicked off its quest for next-gen spacesuits with 2022’s Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) program, which called for private suppliers to develop two suits: one to handle microgravity at the International Space Station (ISS) and another to wear on the moon. NASA allocated $3.1 billion to the contracts and selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to work on the project. The latter dropped out in 2024 after deciding it couldn’t hit the required deadlines. The report says NASA’s delivery dates “were overly optimistic and ultimately proved unachievable” and warns that past experience of spacesuit development suggests Axiom Space won’t have even demo suits ready before 2031. That’s bad because NASA’s plans call for a moon landing in 2028, while the ISS will end its mission in 2030. The Office of Inspector General blames the xEVAS contracts for the mess. “NASA’s choice to use a firm-fixed-price, service-based acquisition strategy for xEVAS aligns with the Agency’s strategic decision to shift the risk of cost overruns to the contractor, as well as help foster a commercial space economy,” the report notes. “However, in this case, the firm-fixed-price contract approach conflicted with the developmental nature of next-generation spacesuits, which carry higher levels of technical, financial, and schedule risk.” The report also notes that until NASA issued xEVAS contracts, no commercial market for spacesuits existed. The document also criticizes “overly burdensome requirements like requiring offerors to bid on both microgravity and lunar spacesuits” as that limited the pool of companies capable of doing the job. “In our judgment, while fixed-price and service-based contracts can be viable options for certain NASA procurements, applying that approach to a developmental effort like xEVAS introduced its own set of risks to achieving NASA’s goals,” the report finds. Among those risks were NASA identifying “systemic management issues” related to Collins Aerospace’s work on the suits it currently provides for the ISS, and Axiom Space having zero experience building spacesuits. Another NASA blunder saw the agency decide not to set a standard for all spacesuit manufacturers to meet. The report finds that regrettable because spacesuits “must interface with almost every Artemis spacecraft and asset, including the commercial Human Landing System vehicles, the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, pressurized crewed rovers, and habitation modules.
How the single-source reality increases risk for NASA’s lunar timeline
With Collins Aerospace’s withdrawal from the xEVAS program, NASA now relies solely on Axiom Space for both ISS and lunar suits, eliminating the redundancy built into the original procurement strategy. The Inspector General’s report explicitly states that this sole-source situation leaves NASA vulnerable if Axiom fails to meet technical or schedule requirements, potentially forcing continued use of the aging EMU suits on the ISS and requiring major adjustments to lunar exploration plans.
What Axiom’s testing plans reveal about near-term progress
Despite the Inspector General’s skepticism, Axiom Space maintains it will have its AxEMU suit ready for flight testing in 2027, with options to evaluate it either on the International Space Station or during Artemis 3 missions involving Orion docking with commercial lunar lander prototypes. The company confirms ongoing compatibility work with both SpaceX and Blue Origin to ensure suit integration with their respective human landing systems, though no major interface issues have been reported to date.
Why the contractual approach itself may have undermined the schedule
The Inspector General’s report concludes that the firm-fixed-price, service-based model used for xEVAS was ill-suited for the inherently uncertain nature of next-generation spacesuit development, which involves significant technical and schedule risks. By placing the full burden of cost overruns on the contractor, NASA may have discouraged the flexibility needed for such a complex developmental effort, particularly given that no commercial market for spacesuits existed prior to these contracts and that the dual-suit requirement limited the pool of qualified bidders from the outset.
Why did Collins Aerospace drop out of the spacesuit contract?
Collins Aerospace determined it could not continue working on spacesuits profitably after determining it had not managed the contract particularly well.
What does Axiom Space say about testing its suit in 2027?
Axiom Space expects to test its AxEMU spacesuit in space in 2027, either on the International Space Station or during Artemis 3 missions involving Orion docking with Human Landing System prototypes.
What is the main concern raised by NASA’s Inspector General regarding the 2028 lunar landing?
The Inspector General warns that past experience suggests Axiom Space won’t have even demo suits ready before 2031, which would miss NASA’s 2028 target for a crewed Moon landing.