NASA Is Seeking Spacesuit Proposals From the Private Sector
It was originally planned that the new spacesuits would be ready for test flights to the International Space Station (ISS) no later than March 31, 2023, and by the beginning of the Artemis 3 program.
NASA published a request for proposal in which they ask private companies for help in developing new spacesuits. The space agency spent millions of dollars and 14 years on developing them in-house but failed to create new spacesuits for the lunar program.
NASA is now willing to pay the commercial sector over $1 billion to fund the spacesuits' design, testing, and certifications.
It was originally planned that the new spacesuits would be ready for test flights to the International Space Station (ISS) no later than March 31, 2023, and by the beginning of the Artemis 3 program.
However, due to funding problems, technological challenges, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the date had to be postponed to November 2024.