NASA shutting down $2B satellite refueling project over tech, cost challenges

NASA is shutting down a $2 billion satellite tv for pc refueling mission over price and tech challenges which have plagued this system. 

The house company announced the shutdown of the On-orbit Servicing, Meeting, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) mission on Friday after an “in-depth, impartial” overview.

The discontinuation of the mission occurred because of “continued technical, price, and schedule challenges, and a broader neighborhood evolution away from refueling unprepared spacecraft, which has led to a scarcity of a dedicated associate,” in accordance with NASA’s assertion within the information launch. 

For the OSAM-1 mission that began in 2015, NASA contracted Maxar together with working with NASA’s Goddard House Flight Heart in Maryland which led the way in which. 

OSAM-1 was being developed to assist refuel spacecraft, however this system has had many bumps within the street and the fee for NASA skyrocketed. 

NASA’s Inspector Normal report from October discovered that the schedule delays and hovering prices for NASA intensified due to “poor contractor efficiency and continued technical challenges.” 

The report discovered that the company would blow by its $2 billion price ticket and the launch date scheduled for December 2026. 

“Growth of the servicing payload—the system answerable for rendezvous and refueling Landsat 7—has continued to price extra and take longer than anticipated,” NASA’s report mentioned. “Furthermore, a lot of the mission’s price development and schedule delays will be traced to Maxar’s poor efficiency on the spacecraft bus and SPIDER contracts with every deliverable roughly 2 years delayed.” 

NASA mentioned their management is “reviewing the best way to mitigate the affect of the cancellation on the workforce” at NASA’s Goddard House Flight Heart.