NASA announced on Thursday that it has chosen Axiom Space to grow spacesuits for astronauts to wear during the next Moon landing. The suits will be developed under a $228.5 million contract for Artemis III, which will see humans touch down on the lunar surface after more than fifty years. This portion will be used by Axiom Space for the design, growth, qualification, certification, and manufacturing of its spacesuits and support facilities for Artemis III.
Three months after NASA selected Axiom Space, along with Collins Aerospace, the announcement took place. Once the spacesuits are complete, they will be checked ahead of Artemis III in a computer simulation outer space environment at NASA facilities, as the US space agency will be in charge of astronaut training, route planning, and service system approval. The spacesuit development and delivery will be carried out under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract, which includes both Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace and is worth $3.5 billion in total.
This cost is incurred on both companies in order for any of them to be able to meet NASA’s spacewalking needs until 2034. NASA is currently contributing to the growth of the Artemis Program, which is set to launch this year with Artemis I.
