ANU Astrophysicist and Cosmologist Dr Brad Tucker says NASA’s new spacesuits are running “overtime and over budget” and will not be ready for the 2024 moon mission.
“NASA has been trying to design new spacesuits for its moon mission … and the reason it actually looks quite funny is it’s supposed to be more manoeuvrable,” he told Sky News Australia.
“The previous spacesuits were so bulky astronauts actually had a high rate of tearing their shoulders in them, so astronauts actually had a high rate of shoulder reconstruction surgeries because it was so hard to move.”
Dr Tucker said NASA’s aim was to make the suits fit better to the astronauts and to be more suited to the moon, but the project was taking more time and resources to complete than anticipated.
“The NASA inspector general said it’s now going to be as early as mid-2025 until these spacesuits are ready and they were hoping to land humans in 2024, so it’s going to push back that timeline a bit.