KBR and Axiom Space recently completed three successful crewed underwater tests of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at Johnson Space Center \u2014an important milestone as both companies work to support NASA’s return to the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These initial crewed tests involved an astronaut being fully submerged in the NBL\u2019s 6.2-million-gallon pool while wearing Axiom Space\u2019s next-generation spacesuit, the AxEMU, which is being developed for use on NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission. The goal was to evaluate the suit\u2019s integrity in an environment that closely simulates the weightlessness of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout the tests, the suit remained completely sealed and airtight, signifying it\u2019s ready for more advanced evaluations, and ultimately, future missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These successful tests demonstrate KBR’s leadership in supporting human spaceflight and next generation EVA systems,\u201d said Mark Kavanaugh, KBR\u2019s President, Defense, Intel and Space. \u201cWorking in close partnership with NASA and Axiom Space, our team delivered mission critical support that showcases our technical depth, operational excellence and ability to advance innovative space solutions. As commercial space activity accelerates, KBR remains at the forefront, delivering capabilities that drive performance, safety and long-term growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KBR\u2019s role in this achievement is part of the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract, which supports NASA\u2019s evaluation of the next-generation spacesuit. The suit is designed to be more versatile, reliable and adaptable to the evolving needs of space exploration, including future missions to the moon and beyond. Testing is critical to validating the suit’s performance and confirming its readiness for operational use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAxiom Space is proud to have KBR\u2019s decades of expertise in spacesuit innovation supporting the AxEMU,\u201d said Russell Ralston, Executive Vice President of Extravehicular Activity, Axiom Space. \u201cWith KBR further enabling the AxEMU, astronauts will return to the south pole of the Moon with more flexibility, mobility, and protection to live and work in the harsh lunar environment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, KBR and Axiom Space continue to support the next era of human space exploration, helping astronauts train, suit up and safely carry out missions in space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KBR and Axiom Space recently completed three successful crewed underwater tests of the Axiom…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2895,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/2895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}