NASA cancels a satellite maintenance mission that had already cost $1.5 billion

NASA cancels the OSAM-1 satellite maintenance mission, which has already cost $1.5 billion due to constant delays and technical problems.

Here's What We Know

The mission, which was supposed to demonstrate robotic satellite maintenance technology in orbit, was to try to refuel an old Landsat satellite and build an antenna in space.

In 2020, the company added a sophisticated robotic arm to mount the antenna in space, but this led to even more technical and financial problems.

The cost has risen significantly since the initial launch in 2016. The request to Congress for funding was $808 million, but almost twice as much was funded, about $1.5 billion. In the report, NASA's inspector general indicated that the reason for the significant increase in the cost of the OSAM-1 mission and delays in the project is the poor performance of Maxar, which is responsible for the development of the spacecraft and SPIDER contracts.

In 2022 and 2023, NASA provided Maxar with approximately $2 million in labour costs to help with flight software and systems development. Last year, Maxar also delivered to NASA one of the OSAM-1 robotic arms and a storage platform that will secure payloads to the satellite during launch. The last two robotic arms were scheduled to be delivered this year.

Maxar cited additional factors that also contributed to delays in the OSAM-1 mission. Among them was the COVID-19 pandemic, which created operational difficulties. In addition, there were problems with the development of the payload that NASA planned to use to refuel the Landsat 7 satellite in orbit.

NASA is considering ways to mitigate the impact of the OSAM-1 mission termination on staff. Approximately 450 NASA employees and contractors who worked on the mission could lose their jobs.

Source: Space News