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NASA’s target of landing humans on the moon by 2024 as part of its Artemis program is “not achievable,” says agency’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released earlier this week.
The office said NASA faces “significant challenges” in producing two flight-ready extravehicular mobility unit (xEMU) space suits in that time frame.
LAUNCH OF THE NORTHROP GRUMMAN CARGO SHIP TO THE SPACE STATION WITH PIZZA AND SUPPLIES
The report noted that NASA’s schedule ran into a 20-month delivery delay for the design, verification, test suit, two qualification suits, one ISS demonstration suit and two lunar flight suits. .
The delays, which the bureau attributes to technical difficulties, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and lack of funding, left no room for the delivery of the flight-ready xEMUs, he noted.
After spending more than $ 1 billion on development and assembly, the bureau said the suits would not be ready to fly until April 2025 at the earliest, given integration requirements.
“Given these anticipated delays in the development of the space suit, a lunar landing at the end of 2024, as NASA currently predicts, is not feasible,” the report continued. “That said, NASA’s inability to complete xEMU development for a moon landing in 2024 is by no means the only factor affecting the viability of the Agency’s current moon return schedule.”
He goes on to quote previous audit work that revealed “significant delays in other major programs critical to a lunar landing, including the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule.”
In addition, the report highlights the impact of development delays and bid challenges on the schedule.
While suits are required for training on Artemis missions and the International Space Station (ISS), training needs “do not match projections of when suit material will be available” and it is feared that it may not be. There is not enough training material available for early training events to support the currently planned Artemis III 2024 mission.
The bureau recommended that the agency determine its approach to purchasing additional suits and stressed that the extent to which NASA’s investments will be used is unclear and may not prove to be profitable.
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The OIG made four recommendations to Kathy Lueders, NASA Associate Administrator for the Directorate of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission.
These recommendations include “adjusting the schedule appropriately to reduce development risk,” “developing an integrated master schedule to incorporate and align material deliveries and training needs of dependent programs – Gateway, ISS and HLS – and the Directorate of Flight Operations “,” “ensure that the technical requirements for the new generation suits are solidified before selecting the acquisition strategy to purchase suits for the ISS and Artemis programs” and “develop an acquisition strategy for next-generation spacesuits that meets the needs of the ISS and Artemis programs. “
SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that his company “could do it if needed,” without providing details.
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