NASA has announced the awarding of a contract to design new spacesuits for its astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) to US firms Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace following a year-long tendering process.
"This is a historic moment for us," Johnson Space Center director Vanessa Wyche said at a news conference in Houston, Texas on Wednesday. "History will be made in these suits."
The spacesuits currently worn by NASA astronauts on the ISS are rapidly becoming outdated, with incidents of water accumulating in helmets on space walks causing additional concern.
The development of new spacesuits has been planned for some time, but the process has been beset by various problems and delays.
The new suits may be ready for initial testing as early as 2025 and are intended for use by NASA astronauts on the Artemis mission, which will land US astronauts on the moon again for the first time since the early 1970s, and ultimately, on NASA's first manned mission to Mars.
