“NASA announced Friday that it is canceling a $2 billion satellite refueling project after criticizing the project's contractors for poor performance,” UPI reported.
“Continued technical, cost, and schedule challenges, as well as the broader community's evolution away from refueling unprepared spacecraft, have resulted in nearly a decade of in-orbit maintenance,” the agency said in a statement.・One assembly/manufacturing project will be canceled.” It has led to a lack of a committed partner. ” […] The spacecraft will utilize its attached Space Infrastructure Instrumental Robot (SPIDER) to conduct 32-day missions to verify its ability to refuel Landsat, assemble communications antennas, and construct large spacecraft structures in orbit. It was planned to demonstrate the in-space manufacturing of ft. of carbon fiber composite beams. .. However, an audit by NASA's Inspector General found that OSAM-1 is expected to exceed the planned budget of $2.05 billion and will not be completed in time for launch in December 2026. It was said that the company was in a slump.
“NASA and Maxar officials acknowledged that Maxar underestimated the scope and complexity of the work, did not fully understand NASA's technical requirements, and lacked the necessary expertise.” says the report.
The report also stated that Maxar “no longer benefits from research on OSAM-1” and that the xproject subsequently “does not appear to be a high priority for Maxar in terms of staffing quality.”
Thanks to longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.