NASA selects Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace for spacesuit contracts

NASA awarded contracts to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to provide spacesuits for International Space Station spacewalks and Artemis moonwalks, although neither the agency nor the winning companies offered many technical or financial details. NASA announced June 1 it selected the two companies for Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services, or xEVAS, contracts to support the development of new spacesuits as well as purchasing spacesuit services. The companies will own the suits they develop and will effectively rent them to NASA for space station and Artemis missions, while also being able to offer the suits to other customers. The goal, NASA officials said at a briefing about the awards, is to have lunar spacesuits ready for the Artemis 3 lunar landing mission, currently scheduled for no earlier than 2025. NASA will also conduct an “orderly transition” from existing, decades-old suits on the ISS to the new suits around the same time. NASA earlier planned to develop suits internally though an effort known as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU, but shifted gears to a services model with competition, building on the accomplishments of commercial cargo and crew transportation. NASA is making xEMU data and other capabilities available to the companies to support their work. “I really believe that all of that data is helping to reduce the risk and speed that transition process up to the contractor community,” said Lara Kearney, manager of the extravehicular activity and human surface mobility program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “We were at a great place to transition just because of how mature the xEMU was at the time.”

A lunar spacesuit being developed by a team led by Collins Aerospace, which, along with Axiom Space, won NASA contracts to develop and provide spacesuits for Artemis missions and the ISS. Credit: Collins Aerospace

Axiom, which is working with a team of companies that includes David Clark Company, KBR and Paragon Space Development Corporation, intended to develop spacesuits to support its commercial space station plans.

“We have a number of customers who already would like to do a spacewalk,” explained Michael Suffredini, president and chief executive of Axiom, said at the briefing. “It’s fantastic to have a partnership where we can benefit from the years of experience that NASA has and all the work they’ve done to advance designs.”

Collins Aerospace, working with ILC Dover and Oceaneering, plans to make use of experience that includes development of the Apollo moonwalking suits and the spacesuits used today on ISS spacewalks.

“The goal is to take the foundations that NASA laid with the xEMU in partnership with industry and evolve that technology, and create a suit that is compatible with the entire spectrum of crew members,” said Dan Burbank, senior technical fellow at Collins.

Both Burbank, a former astronaut, and Suffredini, a former NASA ISS program manager, emphasized their commitment to meeting NASA’s extensive requirements for the suits, including being compatible with astronauts ranging in height from the 5th percentile woman to the 95th percentile man.

However, the companies provided few technical details about their suit designs, and NASA did not even have illustrations of the winning designs to show, electing instead to release an illustration of two moonwalking astronauts wearing suits not necessarily associated with either company. Collins did later release several illustrations of its proposed suit as well as images of that design being testing in a lab.

The total value of the xEVAS contracts is $3.5 billion through 2034, a figure that assumes all task orders are exercised. NASA officials at the briefing declined to break out that total between the two companies, stating that information will instead be in the source selection statement for the procurement, expected to be released publicly in late June. In many other commercial procurements, NASA has released the value of individual awards to companies.

NASA spokesperson Rebecca Wickes later told SpaceNews that the individual contract values will not be published in the source selection statement. Instead, that document will list the percentage difference in the prices compared to other bidders,

“We guaranteed them an amount to make sure we could get them going and they had skin in the game, and we’re going to be careful to protect that,” said Mark Wiese of NASA, who chaired the source selection board for the xEVAS competition. He did not disclose those guaranteed amounts.

“NASA will protect the exact amounts of contract guaranteed minimums and/or individual task order award amounts due to the proprietary nature of the commercial solutions while also protecting the ongoing competitive nature of this contract,” Wickes said.

NASA said in the statement that each company “has invested a significant amount of its own money” into development, but did not disclose those amounts. Burbank said that since he focused on the technical side of spacesuit development, he did not know how much the company had spent. Recent work for the xEVAS contract, he said, “is just the latest version of continual investment in internal R&D.”

Suffredini said that Axiom’s suit development was entirely internally funded. “Now you have to go figure out what that is,” he said.

Both companies said they expected to have spacesuits ready for testing on the ISS and for the Artemis 3 mission by the mid-2020s, but another company plans to test its own spacesuit in orbit before then. As part of the Polaris Program announced in February and funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, SpaceX is developing a version of its Crew Dragon pressure suit that can be used for spacewalks. That suit will be tested on the Polaris Dawn mission scheduled for later this year.

Software problem delays NASA Psyche launch

The launch of a NASA mission to the asteroid Psyche has been delayed at least a month and a half because of a problem with the spacecraft’s software, the agency confirmed May 23. In a brief statement to SpaceNews, NASA said it has delayed the launch of the Psyche spacecraft, previously scheduled for Aug. 1, until no earlier than Sept. 20 to address the problem. The delay was first reported by Spaceflight Now. “An issue is preventing confirmation that the software controlling the spacecraft is functioning as planned. The team is working to identify and correct the issue,” the agency said in a statement, but did not elaborate on the specific issue or how it is being corrected. NASA did not immediately respond to follow-up questions, including the duration of the launch window. NASA has not yet formally announced the slip in the launch. The website for the mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory still lists an Aug. 1 launch for the mission as of early May 24. The last agency update on the mission, published May 2, discussed the spacecraft’s shipment from JPL to the Kennedy Space Center to begin preparations for its launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. “Not yet public, we’re working on it,” tweeted Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for the mission at Arizona State University, in response to a question May 23 about the delay and the mission’s launch window.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft, which recently arrived at the Kennedy Space Center to begin launch preparations, will now launch no earlier than Sept. 20, a delay of more than a month and a half. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

NASA selected Psyche in January 2017 as one of two Discovery-class planetary science missions, along with the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. At the time of selection, Psyche was scheduled to launch in 2023 and arrive at the main belt asteroid Psyche in 2030. However, NASA and the project agreed to move up the launch one year, revising its trajectory to allow it to arrive at Psyche in 2026 after a Mars flyby in 2023.

Psyche the spacecraft will orbit Psyche the asteroid for at least 21 months, studying the large, metallic asteroid that may be the remnant of a protoplanetary core. The spacecraft will also test a payload called Deep Space Optical Communication that uses lasers to provide high-bandwidth communications with Earth.

At the mission’s Key Decision Point C review in 2019, NASA estimated a total lifecycle cost of $996.4 million for Psyche. A Government Accountability Office report a year ago on cost and schedule performance of NASA programs stated that the mission’s estimated cost had since declined slightly, to $957.6 million, reflecting the cost of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle NASA selected for the mission in 2020.

JPL is responsible for overall management of Psyche, including engineering, integration and testing. Maxar built the spacecraft bus.

Spire Global adding high-capacity Ku-band antennas to satellites

Spire Global said May 10 it is installing Ku-band antennas from fellow smallsat operator Kepler Communications on at least three satellites to offer higher capacity data services beginning next year. Their deal enables Spire to add high-speed Ku-band capabilities to its fleet in low Earth orbit under Kepler’s existing regulatory licenses, and includes an option to scale up to 50 satellites. U.S.-based Spire currently provides weather and tracking services with more than 100 satellites in LEO that transmit data in UHF, S and X-bands. The company also provides a service that offers its technology, ground station network and automated operations systems to others for deploying their own applications and sensors to orbit relatively quickly. With a Ku-band software-defined radio from Canada-based Kepler, a Spire satellite would be able to send larger amounts of data back to Earth for more data-intensive operations.  Spire head of communications Hillary Yaffe said the Ku-band payload will benefit customers that include Canadian startup NorthStar Earth & Space, which March 16 said Spire will deliver and operate satellites focused on space situational awareness and debris monitoring. Spire’s deal with NorthStar is for an initial three 12-unit cubesats for launch in 2023, with an option to expand to a full constellation of dozens of satellites.

Spire satellites track maritime, weather, and and aviation data from space. Credit: Spire Global

Service expansion 

Kepler said its 19 satellites each have a variant of the Ku-band payload for a constellation that generates most of its revenues from providing connectivity to devices beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.

The Canadian company has been seeking to expand into new markets after raising $60 million in June, including plans for data-relay services with an S-band terminal that successfully tested inter-satellite links earlier this year.

In a separate deal announced Dec. 16, Kepler said it plans to test its data relay terminal on a Spire nanosatellite slated to launch late in 2022.

Flown as a hosted payload, Kepler’s new Ku-band service includes the ground infrastructure needed to provide an end-to-end data transmission service.

Mina Mitry, Kepler’s CEO, said undisclosed customers are already using the Ku-band terminals on its satellites to “transmit large quantities of data point-to-point across the globe quickly.”

These customers are using a new service Kepler calls Global Data Services (GDS), he said, which is designed to be compatible with third-party fixed, maritime and next-generation flat panel antennas.

According to Kepler, GDS has achieved more than 300 megabits per second (Mbps) of data speeds from LEO to a 3.4-meter dish on the ground with its Ku-band technology — and 240 Mbps on a Kymeta flat panel antenna.

“GDS has helped our customers move data and given us valuable flight heritage for our next generation Ku-Band service – testing and validating the technology on the 19 satellites on-orbit,” Mitry said via email.

He declined to disclose a dollar value for its Ku-band antenna contract with Spire, which went public in August by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

The first Spire satellites with Ku-band service are slated to launch in early 2023.

While the standard version of Kepler’s Ku-band software-defined radio is designed for satellites in LEO, Mitry said its in-house manufacturing capabilities enable the company to adapt the technology for other orbits and customer needs.

Arabsat orders first fully software-defined satellite

Saudi Arabian fleet operator Arabsat has ordered its first fully software-defined geostationary satellite to provide flexible coverage across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe. The company said April 29 it signed a contract for Arabsat 7A with Europe’s Thales Alenia Space, which will build the satellite based on its Space Inspire platform. Although launch plans were not disclosed, the companies said Arabsat-7A will replace the bulk of the existing C and Ku-band capacity at 30.5 East on Arabsat 5A, which was launched in 2010 with 15-years of expected operational life. Arabsat 7A will also have extra high-throughput Ku-band capacity to help the company expand services in markets including government and military, mobility, enterprise and oil and gas. Arabsat currently operates 10 satellites across four orbital positions. Its Arabsat 6A satellite is co-located with Arabsat 5A at 30.5 East, which Arabsat describes as its “data hotspot.” Unlike traditional “bent pipe” GEO satellites, software-defined communication payloads can be reprogrammed in orbit to adapt to different areas and markets as demand changes. They are increasingly being ordered by GEO operators in response to industry uncertainty as existing and planned megaconstellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) disrupt the market.

An artistic depiction of Arabsat 7A, Arabsat's first fully software-defined GEO satellite. Credit: Thales Alenia Space

Hadi Alhassani, Arabsat’s vice president and chief strategy officer, said March 21 during a Satellite 2022 panel that flexible GEO satellites are the answer to “the LEO constellation competition.”

“You’re going to see more and more ‘flex sat’ orders this year and the following years,” he said.

According to research from Euroconsult, software-defined satellites made up more than 80% of GEO high-throughput satellite orders in 2021.

Only one of the five GEO orders Thales Alenia Space announced in 2021 was for a fully software-defined satellite.

However, all four GEO orders the manufacturer has announced so far this year have been for software-defined satellites.

The latest was announced March 28 when SES ordered SES-26, which the operator expects will launch in 2024 or 2025 to extend content and connectivity services across Europe, Africa and Asia.

Crew Dragon splashes down to end Ax-1 private astronaut mission

A Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth April 25, ending a 17-day mission that ferried four private astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast from Jacksonville, Florida, at 1:06 p.m. Eastern after a normal reentry. The spacecraft had undocked from the station 16 hours earlier. Unlike two previous Dragon splashdowns, where one of four main parachutes opened later than the other three, all four parachutes on this spacecraft opened at the same time. NASA and SpaceX had played down any concerns about the delayed parachute opening, saying it may be a normal aerodynamic phenomenon and did not pose a risk to the spacecraft or the people inside. Endeavour returned to Earth four private astronauts on Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission. Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut, commanded the mission. One customer, Larry Connor, served as pilot, while two others, Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy, were mission specialists. The four launched April 8 and docked with the station less than 24 hours later for what was planned to be an eight-day stay. However, persistent bad weather at splashdown locations in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico kept Dragon in orbit for an extra week. NASA and Axiom Space said their agreement for the mission incorporated the possibility of such delays, so that Axiom Space was not charged extra for the additional time on the station.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean to end the Ax-1 mission. Credit: SpaceX

“Here we are at the conclusion of an incredible mission, and I must say the teams exceeded every expectation,” Amir Blachman, chief business officer of Axiom Space, said on the joint Axiom/SpaceX webcast after splashdown. “We could not be more proud of what has just been accomplished.”

“Overall, this has been an amazing success. The crew performed beyond expectations,” said Derek Hassmann, operations director at Axiom Space, in call with reporters after splashdown. The additional time in orbit, he said, allowed the private astronauts to complete a “handful” of experiments they deferred earlier in the mission as well as perform additional outreach events. “Our Ax-1 crew pitched in on the general care and feeding and upkeep of ISS.”

The crew itself went to Orlando, Florida, after being recovered from the capsule. Hassmann said they will spend a few days there for post-flight medical tests and rest before going home.

The departure and return of Ax-1 allows NASA to proceed with the launch of a new set of professional astronauts to the ISS. The Crew-4 mission is scheduled to launch on another Crew Dragon spacecraft, Freedom, April 27 at 3:52 a.m. Eastern. It will deliver the Crew-4 astronauts of Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watson of NASA and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency to the ISS.

The tight turnaround — less than 39 hours between splashdown and the scheduled Crew-4 launch — won’t be an issue, said Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight programs at SpaceX. Both SpaceX and NASA were reviewing data from the Ax-1 mission throughout the flight, and he indicated no issues with the spacecraft. “Everything is looking great for our launch of Crew-4.”

Approximately five days after the arrival of Crew-4, the Crew-3 astronauts of Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA will return to Earth on another Crew Dragon spacecraft, ending a mission that started with their launch to the station in November 2021.

Ax-1 was the first in a series of private astronaut missions to the station planned by Axiom Space before it installed a private module on the station, scheduled for as soon as 2024. Hassmann said the next mission, Ax-2, was tentatively scheduled for early spring of 2023. The company previously announced that former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will command Ax-2 with an Axiom customer, John Shoffner, as pilot.

Axiom has not announced who the other two members of the Ax-2 will be. “I believe you will hear something relatively soon” about those other crew members, he said. “Probably in the next few weeks.”