Collins backs out of ISS spacesuit contract with NASA

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"This action was agreed upon after Collins recognized its development timeline would not support the space station's schedule and NASA's mission objectives."

a person in a bulky spacesuit floats weightless inside the fuselage of an aircraft surrounded by people in blue flight suits and safety goggles
Collins Aerospace put a new spacesuit for International Space Station spacewalks through testing on 40 parabolic flights with Zero G. (Image credit: Collins Aerospace)

Collins Aerospace has exited a contract to develop new spacesuits for NASA following talks with the agency.

The contract was part of the xEVAS program, which saw awards to Collins and Axiom Space to develop up to four new spacesuit designs for both the International Space Station (ISS) in low Earth orbit and the Artemis moon program. Collins was to design suits for the ISS.

The development was first reported by Reuters on Wednesday (June 26). "Collins' role in the program has been bumpy and development has fallen behind schedule, and the company has been in talks with NASA officials on how to wind down its role in the program," Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the discussions.

The agency provided an update on Wednesday. "After a thorough evaluation, NASA and Collins Aerospace have mutually agreed to descope the existing task orders on the Collins Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services contract," NASA said in a statement.

Related: Watch next-generation lightweight spacesuit tested on Zero-G flight (photos, video)

"This descope includes ending the International Space Station suit demonstration, which was targeted for 2026. No further work will be performed on the task orders," agency officials added. "This action was agreed upon after Collins recognized its development timeline would not support the space station's schedule and NASA's mission objectives."

It's unclear why Collins pulled out of the contract. The company earlier this year reported good progress on its ISS suit design in zero G parabolic flight testing. 

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NASA is currently grappling with issues with its current ISS spacesuits. The latest instance occurred on June 24, when a coolant leak in astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson's suit cut a spacewalk short. 

The agency stated Wednesday that the change to the xEVAS contract "has no impact on NASA's spacewalking capabilities on the space station."

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Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones
Contributing Writer

Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter @AJ_FI.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Cdr. Shepard
    I wonder if Axiom will be picking up the slack, or if this means onboarding a new supplier (a disconcerting thought). I can't imagine anyone can start from scratch and beat Collins' timeline. NASA must have a back-up plan running in parallel to the latest talks with Collins.
    Reply
  • billslugg
    From the article:
    " "Collins recognized its development timeline would not support the space station's schedule and NASA's mission objectives." It's unclear why Collins pulled out of the contract."

    The "why" is self evident. Collins refuses to cower to NASAs "schedule driven" mentality. Same thing that caused the Challenger explosion. I spent a career dealing with "schedule driven" senior managers. "Bill, you don't have the big picture. You just don't realize how important it is to hold this schedule. And, by the way you don't get any more money or people, just work harder. Pull this one off and manna will rain from Heaven, you'll be a hero."

    And then what happens is you go all out, call in a bunch of chits, borrow from Peter, pull the project out of a hat, manager gets promoted, disappears. No manna. When I walk down the carpeted hallway on the sacred 6th floor, as I pass each gold nameplate I see the office as a plywood stand at a carnival with some barker cajoling me to come in and see the naked lady. It never goes well. You always get a haircut. In today's vernacular the barker says: "Wait 'til the end!"
    Reply