NASA has spent a significant amount of money on the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits used during spacewalks on the International Space Station (ISS). Even so, these suits have ongoing problems that need to be resolved given that they will be critical to the ISS mission until the decommissioning of the station in 2030.
The NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has reported on issues with these spacesuits in the past and recently issued a new report on the status of the spacesuits. In its September 30th report, NASA’s Management of ISS Extravehicular Activity Spacesuit, the auditors noted that the contractor maintaining the spacesuits, Collins Aerospace, is having problems, including:
…considerable schedule delays, cost overruns, and quality issues that significantly increase the risk to maintaining NASA’s spacewalking capability.
The auditors stated that lack of competition for these spacesuit services as well as ineffective contract incentives are making the problems a permanent part of the program. While NASA has promoted competition for many years, these spacesuits designed 50 years ago have not benefited from this new approach, in part because the companies that feed into the supply line are slowly disappearing.
It seems dual-use rockets are much more in demand than antique spacesuits, potentially making spacesuits one of the weaker links in the space industry.
Note: Collins Aerospace ended a separate contract with NASA last year to develop a new ISS EMU. Collins continues with its contract to maintain the current EMU.
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