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1 of 2 | The OSAM-1 task has been successful improvement since 2015 pinch nan extremity of assisting nan U.S.-owned Landsat 7 imagery outer (similar to NASA's Landsat 9 satellite, pictured) by refueling and repairing it successful orbit to widen its life. File Illustration courtesy of NASA
March 1 (UPI) -- NASA said Friday it is shutting down a $2 cardinal outer refueling task aft criticizing nan project's contractor for mediocre performance.
The agency successful a statement said it will discontinue nan On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing 1 task aft astir a decade of activity owed to "continued technical, cost, and schedule challenges, and a broader organization improvement distant from refueling unprepared spacecraft, which has led to a deficiency of a committed partner."
The program's lead contractor, Maxar, told CNBC, "while we are disappointed by nan determination to discontinue nan program, we are committed to supporting NASA successful pursuing imaginable caller partnerships aliases replacement hardware uses arsenic they complete nan shutdown."
OSAM-1 has been successful improvement since 2015 pinch nan extremity of assisting nan U.S.-owned Landsat 7 imagery outer by refueling and repairing it successful orbit to widen its life.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center successful Greenbelt, Md., was heading nan project, pinch Maxar Space Systems arsenic nan main contractor nether aggregate deals.
The spacecraft would person utilized an attached Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot (SPIDER) to refuel nan Landsat, combine a communications antenna and show in-space manufacture of a 32-foot c fibre composite beam to verify nan capacity of constructing ample spacecraft structures successful orbit.
The agency antecedently expressed hopes that nan programme would show its servicing technologies could beryllium utilized successful different NASA missions and moreover transportation OSAM-1 technologies to commercialized entities and jumpstart a caller home servicing manufacture projected to beryllium worthy $5 cardinal by 2030.
An audit from NASA's Inspector General, however, recovered OSAM-1 was connected way to transcend nan projected $2.05 cardinal fund and would not make its December 2026 motorboat date, laying nan blasted connected nan "poor capacity of Maxar."
"NASA and Maxar officials acknowledged that Maxar underestimated nan scope and complexity of nan work, lacked afloat knowing of NASA method requirements, and were deficient successful basal expertise," nan study read.
The study besides noted Maxar was "no longer profiting from their activity connected OSAM-1,″ aft which nan task appeared not "to beryllium a precocious privilege for Maxar successful position of nan value of its staffing."
OSAM-1's cancellation comes aft Maxar delivered nan spacecraft and SPIDER lodging portion to nan Goddard halfway successful September. Other awesome components, specified arsenic a robotic servicing arm, SPIDER and SPIDER's modular antenna, were not yet finished.
NASA said it is reviewing really to mitigate nan effect of nan project's shuttering connected its Goddard halfway workforce.
