Elon Musk Offers for SpaceX to Make NASA Spacesuits, after Watchdog Says Program to Cost Billion
DannyB writes:
Elon Musk offers for SpaceX to make NASA spacesuits, after watchdog says program to cost $1 billion:
NASA has spent over $420 million on spacesuit development since 2007 but, even with another $625 million in spending planned, the Inspector General report found that the spacesuits for the agency's lunar missions will "not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest."
Elon Musk offered SpaceX's services to help NASA make its next-generation spacesuits, after a watchdog report on Tuesday said the agency's current program is behind schedule and will cost over $1 billion.
"SpaceX could do it if need be," Musk wrote in a tweet.
[...] Musk's proposal came in response to a report by NASA's Inspector General - which is the investigative office which audits the agency for fraud and mismanagement - on the work being done to develop a new line of Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU), which are informally called spacesuits.
Astronauts on board the International Space Station use spacesuits "designed 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle" program, the report noted. IG also highlighted that those spacesuits have been "refurbished and partially redesigned" over the past decades to continue working.
[...] The spacesuits have a multitude of different components, which the Inspector General noted are supplied by 27 different companies. That's a point Musk also highlighted, saying in a tweet that it "seems like too many cooks in the kitchen."
See also:Elon Musk offers to make moon spacesuits as report calls out NASA lunar delays
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.