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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is abandoning its mission to refuel older satellites in orbit, canceling an ambitious $2 billion project that has been hit by delays and technical setbacks.
management said on friday The company announced it was halting the effort following an independent review, citing “ongoing technical, cost and schedule challenges.”
The On-Orbit Service, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 project (OSAM-1) aims to build a robotic arm that can refuel satellites not built for refueling, extending their lifetimes. did.
“Do we need additional gas or satellite adjustments?” the official pitched. web page.
Development began in 2015 and was scheduled to be released in 2025, but it was postponed to 2026.
OSAM-1’s refueling technique seemed almost brute force.a concept video Photos of a robotic arm called the Space Infrastructure Dexterus Robot (SPIDER) cut open fuel hatches, tore off restraints and loosened fuel caps, all in space.
Its primary purpose was to refuel Landsat 7, a US satellite launched in 1999. The satellite was not built to be refueled in orbit. SPIDER can also be used to set up antennas as a secondary function.
But NASA says the space industry as a whole has pivoted to already built satellites with refueling capabilities, eliminating the need for such equipment.
The administration said it was facing a “lack of committed partners” amid concerns that the project would become obsolete.
One of the contractors working with NASA on the project was California-based Maxar Technologies, which was to provide the spacecraft and robotic arm in a contract worth $316 million.
however, audit report In October 2023, the company blamed the contractor, saying its “poor performance” meant NASA had to provide unplanned human resources and engineering support.
The spacecraft was delivered to NASA in September 2023, about two years later. Meanwhile, Maxar has also struggled to meet Spider delivery deadlines and told NASA it was no longer profiting from contract work, the audit report said.
The report found that Maxar “significantly underestimated the scope and complexity of the work, did not fully understand NASA’s technical requirements, and lacked the necessary expertise” to meet NASA standards. ”, adding that the contractor also acknowledged this.
The report said Maxar’s delays were due to “inappropriate prioritization and staffing” and the contractor’s failure to conduct necessary tests before delivery.
The total cost of the mission, once estimated at about $753 million, is expected to jump to $2.05 billion by 2022, further exceeding this budget, according to the report.
NASA said it is working to reduce the impact of the OSAM-1 cancellation on staff at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The agency reported CNBC OSAM-1 has 450 staff and contractors working on it and will “support project employees on a plan-by-plan basis through fiscal year 2024,” it said.
NASA and Maxar did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment sent outside of normal business hours.