Houston, We Have a Wardrobe Problem

The United States wants to send astronauts back to the moon by 2028, but there is one big problem: the spacesuits may not be ready in time. NASA hired a small Texas company called Axiom Space to redesign the suits that American astronauts will wear on the lunar surface. Now, government inspectors are warning that Axiom is behind schedule, and some experts doubt the mission can happen on time.

Spacesuits are far more than just clothing. They act like tiny spacecraft wrapped around a person, keeping astronauts alive by providing air, regulating body temperature, and managing pressure. Without a working spacesuit, no astronaut can safely step onto the moon's dusty, rocky surface.

NASA has not fully updated its spacesuits since the 1970s — more than 50 years without a major redesign. In 2022, the agency chose two private companies to build the next generation of suits. One was Collins Aerospace, a longtime NASA partner. The other was Axiom Space, a startup that was only six years old at the time. Collins later quit the project in 2024, leaving Axiom as NASA's only option.

Axiom was founded in 2016 by Kamal Ghaffarian, an engineer who built his career working with the U.S. government. He co-founded the company with Michael Suffredini, a former NASA manager who once ran the International Space Station program. Their original dream was to build the first privately owned space station, and the spacesuit contract was seen more as a helpful source of money than a main goal.

The company has had a rocky road. It lost money arranging expensive space trips for wealthy clients, spending huge amounts on hotels, training, and transportation. Over just 15 months in 2024 and 2025, Axiom went through four different CEOs. A former company executive described the situation bluntly: 'It was madness.'

In April 2025, NASA's inspector general released a report warning that Axiom might not finish the new spacesuits until 2031 — three years too late. To try to stay on schedule, NASA told Axiom to simplify the suit's design. The result will be a less advanced suit, similar to what astronauts wore during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s. One expert called it a 'bargain basement version' of what NASA originally wanted.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman admitted that things had not been going well, saying the blame belongs to both Axiom and NASA itself. He said the agency had asked for an extremely difficult suit to build and was too slow to notice when problems piled up. 'It's not fair for NASA to shift our responsibility of achieving the near-impossible,' Isaacman said.

The stakes go beyond one company or one contract. China is working hard to land its own astronauts on the moon by 2030, and if the United States falls behind, China could become the first country to put humans on the moon in the 21st century. Some experts say government-led programs, like China's, are better suited for risky, expensive exploration that does not earn a profit.

There is one more surprising detail about the new spacesuits: NASA will not actually own them. Under the current contract, Axiom will own the suits and rent them to NASA. When future American astronauts walk on the moon, they will be doing so in rented clothes.