Extravehicular Mobility Unit - Future Use and Proposed Replacement

Future Use and Proposed Replacement

NASA continues to use the EMU in the wake of the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011. When preparing for the Constellation Program, a now-cancelled series of missions to the ISS, Moon, and Mars which was planned to commence in 2015, NASA planned to replace the EMU and the ACES pressure suit with a new Constellation Space Suit system, derived from the ACES suit and the ILC Dover-developed Mark III and I-Suit space suit systems.

The new suit would have been designed, depending upon the configuration, to protect the astronaut during launch, in-flight emergencies, reentry and landing, and both microgravity and lunar EVAs. It was planned to feature common hardware and the modular features used in the ACES and EMU suits.

On June 11, 2008, NASA awarded a contract for Oceaneering International for the development and manufacturing of the new suits, with the David Clark Company and United Space Alliance being two of seven contractors in the new endeavor. Oceaneering beat out the Hamilton Sundstrand/ILC Dover partnership in the manufacturing of the new space suit.

However, on August 15, 2008 NASA press release stated that a compliance issue required the termination of Oceaneering's contract for the Constellation suit for the convenience of the government. Later, NASA announced that effective March 2, 2009 "NASA has awarded an interim letter contract to Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston to begin work on the design, development and production of a new spacesuit system for the Constellation Program. The new contract featured a Hamilton Sundstrand/ILC Dover partnership. The cancellation of the Constellation Program in 2010 leaves the suit's current status uncertain.