NASA chooses two companies to build spacesuits for its 21st century Moonwalkers

Enlarge / An artist’s illustration of two suited crew members working on the lunar surface. (credit: NASA)

On Wednesday, NASA took another step toward landing humans on the Moon when the agency announced a plan to purchase new and more versatile spacesuits for its astronauts.

After more than a decade of work to develop a new spacesuit in-house, NASA said it would instead buy spacesuit services from two private companies, Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace.

Each of these companies will be able to use technology NASA has worked on but are responsible for the overall development of the spacesuits used on the International Space Station and activities on the lunar surface. Axiom and Collins said they intended to demonstrate their spacesuits for NASA—likely in the form of a spacewalk outside the space station—by 2025.