NASA awards contract to Axiom Space to make Artemis spacesuits
What's the story
US space agency NASA has announced that a Houston-based company called Axiom Space will make spacesuits for the Artemis 3 lunar mission.
The mission aims to land astronauts near the Moon's south pole in either 2025 or 2026.
The contract has a base value of $228.5 million and the money will be doled out via a series of "task orders."
Context
Why does this story matter?
NASA is making ambitious plans for the future at a time when its first mission to the Moon in 50 years (Artemis 1) has failed to take off twice. Hopefully, that will change soon.
This time, the space agency is considering the satellite to be a place for settlement. Such an ambitious initiative would require the best of spacesuits.
Procedure
NASA has informed Axiom about the technical requirements
The space agency has defined the technical and safety requirements for the spacesuits.
Based on the instructions, Axiom Space will handle the designing, development, certification, qualification, and production of the suits so that they meet Artemis 3's mission parameters. They will also be tested in a spacelike environment prior to launch.
Experts at NASA will give the final approval.
Official words
'Partnership with Axiom will help in building presence on Moon'
The manager of NASA's Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility program, Lara Kearney, explained the reason behind giving the contract to Axiom.
"NASA is proud to partner with commercial industry on this historic mission that will kickstart the United States building a lasting presence on the surface of the moon."
"Spacesuits enable us to literally take that next step," she added.
Information
What is the Artemis 3 mission?
If the mission is successful, Artemis 3 will be the first crewed landing on Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972. There will also be subsequent Artemis missions and a crewed outpost should come up on the satellite by the end of this decade.