NASA has decided to develop a more basic version of the lunar spacesuit for the first Moon landings, aiming to meet a 2028 target date. The agency is working with Axiom Space to build what it calls the Sortie Suit, which will be lighter and easier to use than previous models. This new suit is meant for missions that will fly on landers made by SpaceX and Blue Origin. The goal is to reduce the suit’s weight, simplify its construction, and make it easier to connect with the vehicles used for lunar landings.
NASA leadership has been pushing to speed up the Artemis program since Administrator Jared Isaacman took over in late 2025, according to Ars Technica. Isaacman and his team are trying to get the program back on track after it had fallen significantly behind schedule. One major change has been canceling the Lunar Gateway project, which was meant to support lunar missions but added complexity and delay. The decision to simplify the spacesuit is part of a broader effort to reduce time and cost in getting humans back to the Moon.
Axiom Space is now the only company building spacesuits for NASA’s lunar missions following the exit of Collins Aerospace in 2024. Collins Aerospace had dropped out of the project due to delays and financial issues, leaving Axiom as the sole supplier.
NASA has been meeting with Axiom regularly, holding sessions to push progress on the new suit design, according to a report from The Next Web. The original spacesuit requirements were considered too complex and time-consuming by some experts. These included long-duration stays in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon, which many found overly demanding.
The certification process for the suit has also been shortened to help meet the fast-moving timeline. The new design is focused on getting astronauts safely to and from the lunar surface in time for the 2028 landing goal. This target date is not yet confirmed but is being used as a key milestone for the Artemis program.
The original plan had included European contributions to the Gateway project, which would have supported multiple astronaut flights. ESA had secured three flight opportunities for European astronauts through a deal signed in October 2020. However, the Gateway project was canceled in March, removing that platform and those flight seats. Europe had been building modules for the Gateway, including ones from Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, Redwire, and Beyond Gravity. Those modules were not just a donation but part of an agreement in exchange for European service modules that power the Orion spacecraft.
Even though the Gateway no longer exists, Europe is still delivering its hardware to support the Artemis program. The first lunar landings will not include European astronauts, as those seats are no longer valid. ESA is now left without a way to send its own astronauts to the Moon through the Gateway system. The new spacesuit design is meant for missions that will not involve European astronauts.
This shift in focus reflects the changing priorities of NASA’s lunar program and its reliance on private partners like SpaceX and Blue Origin. The Artemis IV mission is expected to be the first to use the new Sortie Suit design. It is still unclear what ESA will do next in terms of lunar participation without a way to send its own astronauts to the Moon through the Gateway system.
IMAGE: Jared isaacman official portrait. Photo: Bill Ingalls / Wikimedia, Public domain
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