Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David

It is not an inside secret that the private space company, Axiom Space, has been troubled by its development of a new spacesuit for Artemis moonwalkers.

As the new spacesuit is needed for any Artemis III astronauts working on the Moon, the sluggish development of appropriate apparel is a wait-a-minute moment in space expooration.

Meet the timelines

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman recently met with leadership at Axiom Space to discuss the development of their spacesuit.

Image credit: Via Jared Isaacman

“It was great to see their facilities and all the progress,” Isaacman posted January 24 on X (formerly Twitter).

“I shared with them exactly what I told our HLS [Human Landing System] providers: NASA will do all we can to help them accelerate and meet the timelines, with plenty of schedule margin to spare,” the NASA leader explained.

“As an agency, we must be willing to challenge the requirements and not let an hour go by on a problem we can solve today. This is imperative to achieving the President’s national space policy,” said Isaacman.

Image credit: Axiom Space

Hale-ing frequency

A day later, Wayne Hale, a former Space Shuttle Program Manager & Flight Director for 40 missions, now retired from NASA after 32 years, responded:

“Exactly the same message from NASA leadership that was made right before Challenger was lost.”

Hale’s posting stirred up this counter-response from Isaacman:

Image credit: Via Jared Isaacman

“It is disappointing and disrespectful that you would so casually invoke the loss of Challenger on a topic related to EVA suit development. Let me rework my above post to be the opposite of what I wrote, and please tell me if it sounds safer:

“I shared with them exactly what I told our HLS providers: NASA should do absolutely nothing to help them accelerate and meet their timelines so there is no schedule margin to spare. As an agency, we must never be willing to challenge the requirements and let as much time go by as possible on problems.”

“Is this better? Respectfully, do better Sir,” Isaacman posted.

Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David