NASA’s Loses Its New Spacesuit Redundancy

Keith’s note: In case you missed it while the Starliner thruster issue has been in the headlines, yet another EVA was canceled due to a spacesuit issue. First there was a problem with a suit’s comfort/flexibility. Then there was a water leak the other day. Scratch two EVA attempts. These suits are 50-ish years old – older than some of the astronauts who wear them. Now NASA is going to the Moon for long duration stays and new space suits are needed. Axiom and Collins had xEVAS contracts. Now Collins has decided to discontinue their work leaving only one company to produce the new spacesuits. Redundancy in terms of suppliers has been a smart thing that NASA has been doing. Now they will have only one spacesuit option and if it is delayed then that becomes a big pacing item for the whole Artemis thing – as if there are not already enough of those.