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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Spacesuits and Lawsuits Put 2024 Moon Landing in Jeopardy

• https://www.nextgov.com, By Tara Copp

NASA may not land astronauts on the Moon by 2024 because two spacesuits won't be ready on time and because losing bidders have protested the lunar lander contract, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday. 

"The goal is 2024. We have just been held up for 100 days waiting for the protest" filed by Blue Origin and Dynetics to the Government Accountability Office over NASA's decision to award the contract to SpaceX, Nelson said.. The protest had halted all work on the lander until GAO threw it out on July 30.

Even more critical than the legal delays, however, is a NASA inspector general report, released on Tuesday, that found the astronauts' spacesuits won't be ready on time. 

"NASA's current schedule is to produce the first two flight-ready xEMUs by November 2024, but the agency faces significant challenges in meeting this goal," the NASA inspector general wrote, citing program delays, the impact of COVID, and cost overruns. 

The next-generation spacesuits, known as Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Units, have been years in the making, and "by the time two flight-ready xEMUs are available, NASA will have spent over a billion dollars on the development and assembly," the IG wrote. 


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