NASA shutting down $2B satellite refueling project over tech, cost challenges

NASA is canceling a $2 billion satellite refueling project, citing cost and technical challenges that have plagued the program.

space agency announced The On-Orbit Maintenance, Assembly and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) project was halted on Friday after a “thorough independent” review.

A statement in a NASA news release said the project cancellation was due to “ongoing technical, cost, and schedule challenges, as well as the broader community’s evolution away from refueling unprepared spacecraft. This was caused by a lack of a committed partner.

For the OSAM-1 project, which began in 2015, NASA contracted Maxar and worked with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which led the project.

OSAM-1 was being developed to help refuel spacecraft, but the program encountered many difficulties and increased costs to NASA.

nasa inspector general report Since October, NASA’s schedule delays and cost escalation have been exacerbated by “deteriorating contractor performance and ongoing technical challenges,” the agency found.

According to reports, the company will blow the price tag of $2 billion and a release date scheduled for December 2026.

“Development of Landsat 7’s maintenance payload, the system responsible for rendezvous and refueling, continues to be more expensive and take longer than expected,” the NASA report said. “Additionally, much of the project’s cost increases and schedule delays are due to Maxar’s poor performance on the spacecraft bus and SPIDER contracts, with each deliverable approximately two years behind schedule.”

NASA said leadership is “considering ways to mitigate the impact of the cancellation on employees” at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.