Chief Engineer Jim Stein wears a recent spacesuit through the Axiom Space Artemis III Lunar Spacesuit event on the Space Center Houston in Houston, Texas, March 15, 2023. “Since the spacesuit worn on the moon have to be white to reflect heat and protect astronauts from extremely high temperatures , the highest layer is currently only used for display purposes to disguise the suit’s proprietary design,” Axion said in a press release.
Marek Felix | AFP | Getty Images
Axiom Space on Wednesday unveiled a prototype lunar suit that NASA plans to make use of for its astronauts on the Artemis missions, that are resulting from launch later this decade.
“It is a big deal for us,” said Axiom President and CEO Michael Suffredini at an event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“We’re thrilled that humanity’s next steps on the moon will probably be within the Axiom spacesuit,” added Suffredini.
The corporate won an initial $228.5 million contract last 12 months to design and construct the spacesuits for use on the Artemis III mission and beyond. NASA’s Artemis program represents a series of missions with growing goals. In December, the agency successfully accomplished its first uncrewed flight.
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Along with Axiom, NASA also awarded the contract to Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of the corporate Raytheon, for the development of latest generation spacesuits. Under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services program, NASA expects to spend as much as $3.5 billion on spacesuits by 2034.
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