Members of Axiom Space’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit

Axiom Space wins NASA Contract to Build Next Generation Astronaut Spacesuits

Axiom Space announced today that it has been awarded the NASA Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) Contract. Axiom is one of two companies to win the award with a potential total value of $3.5 billion across the life of the program.

Under the terms of the contract, the Houston-based company will build the space agency’s next generation astronaut spacesuits that may be used for low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Artemis lunar missions. The new spacesuits by Axiom Space will provide astronauts with advanced capabilities for space exploration while providing NASA commercially developed human systems needed to access, live, and work in microgravity and on and around the Moon.

The Axiom spacesuit is key to the company’s commercial space services. This new NASA contract enables Axiom to build spacesuits that serve the company’s commercial customers and future space station goals while meeting NASA’s ISS and exploration needs.

“Our innovative approach to xEVAS spacesuits provides NASA with an evolvable design that enables cost-efficient development, testing, training, deployment, and real-time operations to address a variety of EVA needs and operational scenarios for a range of customers, including NASA,” said Michael Suffredini, Axiom Space’s President & CEO. “We are immensely pleased that NASA recognizes the value Axiom Space is providing across a range of human spaceflight activities, from our recent private astronaut mission to the ISS to the design and development of Axiom Station, and now to providing this critical system and associated services for astronauts in LEO and beyond.”

Axiom Space has partnered with a strong team of industry experts on this contract including KBR, Air-Lock, David Clark Company, Paragon Space Development Corporation, Sophic Synergistics, and A-P-T Research.

The firm fixed price contract is structured as an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award over a 10-year ordering period and allows for two additional years for completion of services. Authorization to perform work under the xEVAS contract will be through the issuance of NASA task orders not to exceed $3.1B with a ceiling of $3.5B for all services.

Axiom’s xEVAS spacesuits will be designed to accommodate a wide range of crew members. Building off of NASA’s xEMU spacesuit design, the Axiom spacesuits are created to provide increased flexibility and specialized tools to accomplish exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities in space. The xEVAS spacesuits design includes life support, pressure garments, and avionics. The Axiom Space team will provide EVA systems training and real-time operations support to NASA, among other services.

NASA may order IDIQ services at any time after the contract starts with a period of performance beginning June 2022 and ending June 2032. No phase-in period is anticipated, and the work will be managed at Axiom’s Houston facilities.

This NASA contract win is the latest of Axiom Space’s list of recent accomplishments in its efforts to grow the commercial space industry. Earlier this month Axiom Space celebrated the groundbreaking at the company’s new, long-term headquarters at Houston Spaceport, which will be home to the development and construction of Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station. Axiom Space also recently welcomed home the crew of Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) after successfully completing the first all-private astronaut mission to the ISS. The company has also signed agreements with several nations including Italy, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fly on future space missions.

Axiom Space was founded in Houston in 2016 by space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian and Michael Suffredini – NASA’s ISS Program Manager from 2005 to 2015 – to build the world’s first commercial space station and develop commercial space infrastructure that will drive a thriving low-Earth orbit economy. The company currently employs more than 500 people, the majority of which work at its current Houston facilities and will grow the number to over 1,000 by 2023.


Patch of Axiom Space’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit
Patch of Axiom Space’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit

This patch represents the Axiom Space’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU). Our blue star represents Ed White, the first American to perform an EVA. The red star represents Alexie Leonov, the first person to conduct a spacewalk. Each white star represents our AxEMU sub-system team. The gray path illustrates our continuous improvement in engineering design. The orange streak represents leveraging commercial EVA services for NASA’s exploration missions.

Press release

Related Articles

Olympic Bobsledder Turns Towards Space Technology, an interview with Nicholas Frankl Oly

Competing against the world’s top athletes in three Olympic Winter Games, Nicholas Frankl Oly, Axiom Space investor/consultant, and advisory board member of Radian Aerospace has enjoyed the Principality of Monaco for over three Decades.The British-Hungarian, Nicholas Alexander Frankl Oly is a Monaco-based serial entrepreneur, automotive journalist, and former Hungarian bobsledder. He is the founder of…

To access this post, you must purchase All Access Membership.

From Toronto to Monaco, an interview with Emaad Paracha

Committed towards his lifelong dream of traveling to space, Emaad Paracha conquers the space-tech industry by helping build a telescope approaching Hubble’s capabilities but 3000x cheaper.Toronto, Canada based Emaad Paracha always knew he wanted to do something space related, and space-tech just seemed to be the perfect fit. Emaad grew up wanting to be an…

To access this post, you must purchase All Access Membership.

Responses