NASA has failed to create new spacesuits for astronauts in 14 years. The department is ready to purchase spacesuits from private companies

NASA is really having problems with the new spacesuits. After an incredible 14 years of work, management acknowledged the inability to cope with the task and turned to private companies.

A few days ago, NASA posted a request for proposals for companies that want to try their hand at this direction. NASA will provide commercial companies with access to data from design and development activities.

The department plans to cooperate with one or several companies. The services to be performed under this contract include the provision of space suits, tools and equipment, vehicle interfaces, flight and ground support equipment, and training and operations support. The partner is responsible for providing fully demonstrated and certified systems and services capable of meeting NASA’s technical needs. The commercial partner or partners will keep the system running during the spacewalk.

In a press release, NASA says it plans to hold one or more demonstrations of spacewalks with new spacesuits as early as 2023. However, this implies that those same private companies will have to provide ready-made spacesuits much earlier so that NASA specialists have time to test them. In fact, there is no time for development from scratch, that is, NASA implies that some companies already have projects or even completely ready-made solutions, since the Artemis project involves the landing of astronauts on the moon in 2024.

However, back in August, when it became known about NASA’s problems with spacesuits, Elon Musk said that SpaceX could do it if necessary.

Recall that over the past 14 years, NASA has worked on several projects of new spacesuits, spending 420 million dollars on this. Why the management failed is unknown.