NASA moon spacesuits delayed, Elon Musk offers to help

The date NASA proposed in 2024 to land humans on the moon has always been extremely ambitious. Now, a new report from the Office of the Inspector General of NASA indicates that the spacesuits that NASA astronauts would need will not be ready until April 2025 at the earliest. SpaceX founder Elon Musk suggested his company could step in to help.

The report, released on Tuesday, highlights delays in the development of Artemis lunar space suits due to lack of funding, impacts of COVID and technical challenges. NASA had already put forward the combinations – known as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) – in 2019.

NASA’s OIG is responsible for overseeing NASA’s programs and operations. “Given these anticipated delays in the development of space suits, a lunar landing at the end of 2024, as NASA currently predicts, is not feasible,” the report said.

Musk responded to a Space suit delays tweet from CNBC space reporter Michael Sheetz. “SpaceX could do it if needed”, Musk tweeted.

Sheetz pointed out that there are 27 different companies supplying components for the suits. “Looks like there are too many cooks in the kitchen” Musk said.

NASA has been willing to work with commercial suppliers on large space projects, from delivering astronauts and cargo to the ISS to delivering materials to the moon. In July, NASA said it would embrace business partnerships “to optimize space suit technology and inspire pioneers in the space market,” so Musk’s SpaceX offering is in the realm of the possible.

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NASA said it will continue to develop xEMU internally alongside any procurement activity. The agency plans to issue a formal request for support service proposals for space suits and spacewalks later this year with the goal of awarding prizes in early 2022.

The OIG report details some important figures for xEMU development costs. NASA has already spent $ 420 million on the project with the initial goal of producing two flight-ready space suits by November 2024. The Inspector General suggests the price will rise to over $ 1 billion in the year. when these combinations will be developed and assembled.

The Artemis program is a multi-layered effort. NASA worked on its SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft to bring astronauts back to our lunar neighbor. The rocket system has also seen its share of delays, although NASA officially hopes to launch an unmanned Artemis I mission around the moon later this year.

It’s one thing to send a spaceship to the moon, and another to safely transport astronauts to the moon’s surface, and then bring them home. New space suits, which are said to dramatically improve mobility and comfort for astronauts over Apollo-era suits, are a key part of human lunar exploration. No space suits, no moonwalks.

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