Oceaneering ready to suit up in space

William Atkins
Friday, 13 June 2008 21:34

Science - Space

NASA announced on June 12, 2008, that Oceaneering has sewed up the contract to design and build the next-generation space suits. Astronauts will wear CSSS space suits in the new Constellation program that will take the United States back to the Moon for more lunar exploration.

The new space suit will be known as the Constellation Space Suit System, or CSSS. Oceaneering will design and build these CSSS suits for use during launch, abort, and re-entry of the new Orion spacecraft, and for contingency Extravehicular Activity (EVA).

To see images of the new space suits, please go to the Space.com website “NASA Chooses New Spacesuit Maker for Moon Missions.”

Oceaneering International, Inc., the parent company, is headquartered at 11911 FM 529, Houston, Texas. The division of Oceaneering that will produce the space suits is Oceaneering Space Systems, located at 166565 Space Center Boulevard, Houston, Texas, just north of the NASA Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake City, Texas.

The initial NASA spacesuit contract for Oceaneering to design, develop, and test the new spacesuit, through September 2014, is worth $183.8 million. Extension of the contract could make it worth up to $745 million, including the design, testing, evaluation, and production of type types of spacesuits.

Oceaneering will be teaming with the David Clark Company, Inc. (Worchester, Massachusetts) and its subsidiary Air-Lock Inc. (Milford, Connecticut), along with United Space Alliance LLC (Houston, Texas), Harris Corporation (Palm Bay, Florida), Paragon Space Development Corp. (Tucson, Arizona), Honeywell International (Glendale, Arizona), and Cimarron Software Services (Houston, Texas).

The David Clark Company will make the space suit, assisted by its subsidiary Air Lock. The avionics will be produced by Honeywell; certain thermal and life support components by Paragon; and the communications system by Harris Corporation.

The final space suit will be completed at Oceaneering, along with activities involving program management, systems engineering, detailed design, production, testing, integration, and processing.

Oceaneering officials recognize the importance this contract is to the success of the new Constellation project for NASA. Please turn the page for excerpts from press releases made by these representatives.