Overview
- NASA’s Office of Inspector General said Monday that new lunar and spacewalk suits may not be ready until 2031, putting the planned 2028 Artemis surface landing at risk.
- Axiom Space is now the sole suit provider after Collins Aerospace exited in 2024, and the watchdog called NASA’s 2025–2026 demo targets overly optimistic after slips of at least a year and a half.
- NASA countered that Axiom recently cleared a contractor-led technical review toward a critical design assessment and said the work remains on schedule to support a 2028 surface mission.
- The report warned that delays could miss the window to test new microgravity suits on the International Space Station before its planned retirement as soon as 2030, which may force continued use of older suits and changes to lunar plans.
- The watchdog flagged integration risks, noting Axiom’s suit connection differs from Blue Origin’s lander airlock design, and it urged NASA to seek industry input, set interoperability standards, and reassess service-style contracts given weak commercial demand.