$1B spacesuit plan puts crimp in NASA’S return-to-moon timetable
Ever since the White House directed NASA to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 as part of its Artemis program, there have been all sorts of daunting challenges: The rocket the space agency would use has suffered setbacks and delays; the spacecraft that would land astronauts on the surface is not yet completed and was held up by the losing bidders; and Congress hasn’t come through with the funding NASA says is necessary.
But another reason the 2024 goal may not be met is that the spacesuits needed by the astronauts to walk on the lunar surface won’t be ready in time and the total development program, which ultimately will produce just two flight-ready suits, could cost more than US$1 billion.
The NASA Inspector General said in a report Tuesday that the suits have been delayed by almost two years because of funding shortfalls, impacts from the coronavirus pandemic and technical challenges. As a result, the government watchdog concluded that the suits would not be ready until 2025 at the earliest and that “a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible.”
NASA has been working on next-generation spacesuits, which act as mini spaceships that protect the astronauts from the vacuum of space, for 14 years, the IG said. In 2016, NASA decided to consolidate two spacesuit designs into a single program that it would oversee. By 2017, the agency had spent US$200 million and since then has spent an additional US$220 million, the IG found. While it took the program in-house, parts for the suits are still supplied by 27 contractors.
Going forward, the space agency plans to spend US$625.2 million more, the IG said. That would bring the total for design and testing to more than US$1 billion through fiscal year 2025, “when the first two flight-ready spacesuits will be available,” the IG found.
The troubles with the suit program are “by no means the only factor impacting the viability of the agency’s return-to-the-moon timetable,” the IG said. It also said “significant delays” in NASA’S Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft were contributing factors. And delays related to the development of the lunar lander spacecraft “will also preclude a 2024 landing,” it said.
In April, NASA awarded Elon Musk’s Spacex a US$3 billion contract to use its Starship spacecraft to land astronauts on the surface of the moon in what’s known as its Human Landing System program.
But the losing bidders, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Dynetics, an Alabama-based defence contractor, protested the decision. The protests were not successful, but they did force NASA to delay executing its contract with Spacex.
The effort marks the first time NASA has led the development of a new spacesuit that can be worn in the vacuum of space in more than 40 years. The IG report noted that the spacesuits currently aboard the International Space Station “have exceeded their design life by more than 25 years, necessitating costly maintenance to ensure astronaut safety.”
They also don’t fit all body types.
On Twitter, Musk offered his company’s services: “Spacex could do it if need be.”