NASA's Billion Dollar Artemis Spacesuits Won't Be Ready For A 2024 Moon Landing

NASA OIG: NASA’s Development of Next-Generation Spacesuits, NASA OIG
“NASA’s current schedule is to produce the first two flight-ready xEMUs by November 2024, but the Agency faces significant challenges in meeting this goal. This schedule includes approximately a 20-month delay in delivery for the planned design, verification, and testing suit, two qualification suits, an ISS Demo suit, and two lunar flight suits. These delays- attributable to funding shortfalls, COVID-19 impacts, and technical challenges – have left no schedule margin for delivery of the two flight-ready xEMUs. Given the integration requirements, the suits would not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, by the time two flight-ready xEMUs are available, NASA will have spent over a billion dollars on the development and assembly of its next-generation spacesuits.”
Keith’s note: Patricia Stoll, President, Space Systems & Engineered Solutions at ILC Dover responded to a @NASAWatch tweet on this issue – as well as one by @NASAOIG. Interesting. NASA might want to take notice.

@ILCDover has already made the investment in Astro, our commercial EVA spacesuit. We just need NASA to step out of the way and allow industry to get us to the Moon by 2024. pic.twitter.com/xybjC0aQDx

— Patricia Stoll (@PattyStoll) August 10, 2021