Collins Aerospace

Recognized under Tier 3 — Structural Habitats, Collins Aerospace (a unit of RTX) supplies life support hardware for the International Space Station and has worked on next-generation extravehicular systems intended for the ISS and the Moon. Collins served as prime contractor for NASA's next-generation spacesuit task order, providing the portable life support system while ILC Dover supplied the pressure garment and Oceaneering the tools, with testing that included parabolic-flight crew capability assessments. In June 2024, NASA and Collins mutually ended the ISS portion of that spacesuit contract after Collins fell significantly behind schedule; NASA stated the change would not affect ISS spacewalking capability, and Collins continues to support the station's existing EMU suits under a separate Extravehicular Space Operations Contract. Collins's work on portable life support and pressurized-garment systems, even amid this contract setback, remains directly relevant to the closed-loop life support and pressure-garment engineering any Mars surface or transit habitat will depend on.