Chief Engineer Jim Stein wears the new spacesuit during the Axiom Space Artemis III Lunar Spacesuit event at Space Center Houston in Houston, Texas March 15, 2023 During extremely high temperatures, a top layer is currently used for display purposes only to protect the suits’ proprietary design hide,” Axion said in a press release.
Mark Felix | AFP | Getty Images
Axiom Space on Wednesday unveiled a prototype of the lunar spacesuit that NASA plans to use for its astronauts during Artemis missions due to launch later this decade.
“This is a big deal for us,” said Michael Suffredini, Axiom’s President and CEO, during an event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“We are excited that humanity’s next steps on the Moon will be in an Axiom spacesuit,” added Suffredini.
The company won an initial contract last year, valued at $228.5 million, to design and build the spacesuits planned for use on the Artemis III mission and beyond. NASA’s Artemis program consists of a series of missions with escalating objectives. The agency successfully completed the first unmanned flight in December.
Sign up here to receive weekly issues of CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter.
In addition to Axiom, NASA also awarded a contract to Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheonto build next generation space suits. Under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services program, NASA expects to allocate up to $3.5 billion for space suits by 2034.
