Posted 3/5/2024, 12:26:29 AM
NASA Cancels Over-Budget Satellite Servicing Mission After $1.5 Billion Spent
- NASA has canceled the OSAM-1 satellite servicing mission that aimed to refuel Landsat 7 and build an antenna, after $1.5B spent and likely $1B more needed
- The mission faced continued technical, cost, and schedule challenges and delays
- Original scope was just to refuel Landsat 7 but in 2020 it expanded to also assemble a complex 16-ft robotic arm in space
- Congress provided nearly double the funding NASA requested, with support from a key Senator
- The satellite industry has shifted away from refueling unchanged satellites and toward new life extension capabilities