Axiom Space Completes NASA’s Critical Design Review for Next-Generation Spacesuit

With CDR complete, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) moves into production and qualification testing ahead of a demonstration on the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Stanley Love and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Operations Flight Controller Terra Gordon, both wearing Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuits, work together during a training development run on the floor of NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in Houston, which is designed to simulate the lunar surface. (Courtesy of Axiom Space & NASA).

HOUSTON, Nov. 13, 2026 - Axiom Space has closed out the Critical DesignReview (CDR) for the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), a major milestoneon the path toward NASA certifying the new spacesuit for flight.

Completing CDR provides increased assurance that the design and fabrication plans are ready to move forward into production and qualification testing. CDR is conducted at the component level, testing the full body of evidence supporting the design: component packages, engineering drawings, structural analyses, and prototype test results.

"With the closure of CDR, we've delivered the large body of work that provides Axiom Space confidence going into production," said Tammy Radford, Axiom Space Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) Program Manager. "This is the kind of milestone that only comes together when everyone brings their best work to the table, and I couldn't be prouder of this team."

Work on CDR began in the summer of 2025, with the first deliverables provided to NASA before the end of that year. These initial deliveries focused on suit components and flight support equipment.

During CDR, every component team presents completed analysis backed by built and tested prototypes. CDR also introduces asystem-level view that a Preliminary Design Review does not require, including whole-suit mass properties and pressure-drop performance across the integrated design.

With CDR complete, the xEVAS program moves into qualification testing, a rigorous sequence that includes performance testing, environmental testing such as thermal vacuum and vibration, as well as additional life-cycle testing. Successfully completing this sequence demonstrates that the suit meets NASA's mission needs with a clear path to the certification process.

Following CDR, Axiom Space is focusing on production activities such as completing the assembly of the AxEMU to include the completion of the pressure garment and assembly of the Portable Life Support System by early 2027. After those milestones, the team will conduct a rigorous set of qualification and certification tests ahead of delivering the AxEMU for launch to the International Space Station.

Progress on the AxEMU also supports a parallel effort - the Sortie suit, or the AxEMU-S1, which is a tailored configuration for short-duration lunar surface excursions for early Artemis missions. The Sortie suit complements the AxEMU and gives NASA flexibility in its mission architecture as the agency returns astronauts to the Moon in 2028. Because the Sortie suit is not a total redesign and builds on certified AxEMU components, testing infrastructure and supply chains, progress on the AxEMU directly supports delivery of both configurations.

With the AxEMU continuing on to production and the two spacesuit configurations moving forward together, Axiom Space is focused on delivering next-generation spacesuits that will enable the future of human space exploration in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and on the surface of the Moon.

NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, suited in the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, kneels in a bed of simulated lunar regolith and strikes a rock with a geologic hammer at the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. (Courtesy of Axiom Space & NASA).

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