Lunar Spacesuits from Axiom May Not Be Ready Until 2031

NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its latest report into the agency's Artemis program on April 20th, this time focusing on the 'xEVAS' contract to build spacesuits. That contract is currently only being fulfilled by Axiom Space after Collins Aerospace pulled out in June 2024.

The report outlined that NASA has been too demanding in contract requirements, requiring bidders to have their suits usable in the low Earth orbit and lunar environments, while being overly optimistic in its timelines for when spacesuits will be ready for demonstrative use by astronauts on the lunar surface and those working outside of the International Space Station. As such, the OIG determined:

"[If] Axiom experiences design and testing delays in line with the historical average for recent space flight programs, the Artemis and ISS demonstrations may not occur until 2031."

What led them to that conclusion were delays and failure to hit development milestones on time, as well as supply chain risks. Axiom was said to have brought many components in-house while partnering with other entities for the spacesuits consumables, communications, and materials. So far, Axiom has revealed the overall design of its spacesuit in March 2023, tested small select parts by April 2025, and then tested with people by February 2026 in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. The company was meant to be ready for demonstrations on the Moon and outside of the International Space Station before the end of 2026.

The OIG was also critical of the contract type NASA chose for 'xEVAS' and spacesuit use into the future, adding:

"[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. Further, NASA’s attempt to replicate other space flight service-based acquisitions by “renting” spacewalking services from a provider was risky because there was no commercial market for spacesuits prior to the xEVAS effort."

While covering contract financing, the OIG did not mention Axion Space's poistion at large. By performing missions to the International Space Station, developing its own space station, and the 'xEVAS' suits, the company was reportedly on poor financial footing in September 2024. Two months ago, the company performed its newest funding raise, gaining 350 million United States Dollars, via a mixture of equity and debt capital.

Before NASA awarded spacesuit contracts to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, the space agency was developing its own spacesuits in-house, known as 'xEMU', that it would not have to buy as a service. Efforts for those spacesuits were pivoted towards Axiom and Collins in May 2022 after the OIG found, in August 2021, that two 'xEMU' suits would not be ready for a lunar landing in 2024, which obviously never happened, after a billion United States Dollars spent on development. The new 'xEVAS' contracts to Axiom and Collins were jointly valued at 3.5 billion United States Dollars back in 2022.

Spacesuits aren't the only possible delay

Elsewhere, NASA's Artemis program is also facing delays. Last month the OIG also released a report on the contracted SpaceX and Blue Origin Human Landing Systems, which will bring astronauts to and from the surface. That report found that both systems are behind schedule, are yet to conduct several enabling technical demonstrations, including in-space refueling, and suffer from limited maturity. The OIG expects that both SpaceX and Blue Origin will be ready closer to 2030, rather than NASA's aim of 2028.

Luckily, some key parts of the program have been proven to work in recent weeks, namely the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, which sent astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen around the Moon between April 1st and 10th for the Artemis II mission. In an initial post-mission assessment, NASA found that both the spacecraft and rocket worked as expected.

Once all parts of the Artemis program work, NASA's current Administrator, Jared Isaacman, wants to build a crewed base on the Moon, utilizing the previously mentioned systems and the American space agency's mostly-failing Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. That plan comes in the wake of the Trump Administration wanting to cut a quarter of NASA's budget, which Isaacman supports.