It said the suits were a “critical component” of achieving the goal of returning humans to our nearest celestial neighbour but is facing a 20-month delay in their delivery.
Currently, for activities such as spacewalks, astronauts use suits designed 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle programme and rely on these refurbished and partially redesigned spacesuits for extravehicular activities on the International Space Station (ISS).
A new generation of spacesuit that would be more manoeuvrable and have more advanced life support systems has been in development since 2008.
In 2017, Nasa reported that despite spending nearly $200m (£145m) on their development over the previous nine-year period, it remained years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit to use on exploration missions.
Prototypes of the suit have already been de...