In 2022, NASA awarded Collins Aerospace a task order on its next-generation spacesuit program worth up to $3.1 billion combined with fellow contractor Axiom Space. When NASA evaluated Collins proposal, it gave the company an Excellent rating in past performance. Less than a year later, NASA sent Collins senior leadership a letter outlining pervasive management and performance failures on the company existing ISS spacesuit maintenance work. By 2024, Collins and NASA had mutually agreed to descope the contract. The Agency had spent $37 million. SpaceNews NASA OIG News Release
That chain of events is the real finding of NASA Office of Inspector General report IG-26-006, released Monday. Every outlet is covering the delay story: Artemis suits slipping to 2031, NASA sole-source dependent on Axiom, the 2028 lunar landing timeline on the line. All of that is true. But the procurement contradiction underneath it is what makes this story ours. NASA OIG Report IG-26-006
The xEVAS program was supposed to replicate the success of NASA commercial cargo and crew: two competing contractors, firm-fixed-price contracts, the agency renting spacewalking services instead of owning the hardware. It worked for Dragon and Cygnus. It did not work for suits. The OIG was direct: NASA acquisition strategy for xEVAS was not well suited to next-generation spacesuit design and development, citing technical risks, lack of industry experience, and markets that have yet to emerge. NASA OIG News Release
Collins was the weak link from the start. NASA selected the company despite documented performance problems maintaining the current ISS suits — problems so severe that NASA program managers wrote to Collins senior leadership in 2023. Yet the same NASA evaluation board that reviewed Collins proposal gave it an Excellent past-performance rating. The disconnect did not trouble NASA enough to disqualify Collins. It troubled Collins enough to walk away. SpaceNews
Axiom is still in. The company plans a demonstration flight in 2027, either at the ISS or aboard a Human Landing System vehicle in low Earth orbit. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Monday he is confident astronauts will wear Axiom suits when NASA lands on the Moon in 2028. The OIG is not as confident. Using NASA own historical benchmarks — 8.7 years from contract award to first test flight for commercial cargo, crew, Orion, and SLS — the report projects suit demonstrations not before 2031. SpaceNews NASA OIG News Release Axiom currently targets late 2027. That is the gap. NASA OIG News Release
The clock is not forgiving. NASA wants to test the new microgravity suits aboard the ISS before the station retires, currently planned for 2030. The lunar suits need to be ready for Artemis IV, the first crewed lunar landing since 1972. If Axiom slips, NASA has no fallback. The competition the xEVAS program was built around is gone. One company controls the pipeline for both ISS and Artemis EVA capability. Scientific American
The OIG recommended NASA seek industry input on current contracts and develop contingency plans for operating with whatever suits become available. It did not recommend restarting competition. Neither did it explain how Collins received an Excellent rating while NASA was simultaneously documenting the companys failures. That question remains with the agency.
