Increase the size of / Artist’s illustration of the OSAM-1 spacecraft (bottom) connecting with the Landsat 7 satellite (top) in orbit.
NASA
NASA has actually canceled an over-budget, behind-schedule objective to show robotic satellite maintenance innovation in orbit, ending on a task that has actually cost $1.5 billion and most likely would have cost almost $1 billion more to get to the launch pad.
The On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 objective, referred to as OSAM-1, would have grappled an aging Landsat satellite in orbit and tried to refuel it, while likewise showing how a robotic arm might build an antenna in area. The spacecraft for the OSAM-1 objective is partly constructed, however NASA revealed Friday that authorities chose to cancel the job “following a thorough, independent job evaluation.”
The area company mentioned “continued technical, expense, and schedule difficulties” for the choice to cancel OSAM-1.
Objective creep
The objective’s expense has actually swollen because NASA formally started the job in 2016. The objective’s initial scope required simply the refueling presentation, however in 2020, authorities added the in-orbit assembly goal. This involved including a complicated tool called the Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot (SPIDER) basically a 16-foot-long (5-meter) robotic arm to put together 7 structural aspects into a single Ka-band interactions antenna.
The addition of SPIDER indicated the objective would introduce with 3 robotic arms, consisting of 2 appendages required to get onto the Landsat 7 satellite in orbit for the refueling presentation. With this modification in scope, the name of the objective altered from Restore-L to OSAM-1.
A report by NASA’s inspector general in 2015 described the objective’s hold-ups and expense overruns. Because 2016, the area firm has actually asked for $808 million from Congress for Restore-L and OSAM-1. Legislators reacted by providing NASA almost $1.5 billion to money the advancement of the objective, almost double what NASA stated it desired.
Restore-L, and after that OSAM-1, has actually constantly delighted in assistance from Congress. The objective was handled by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Former Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) was a crucial backer of NASA objectives lack Goddard, consisting of the James Webb Space Telescope. She was the leading Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee when Congress began moneying Restore-L in late 2015.
At one time, NASA forecasted the Restore-L objective would cost in between $626 million and $753 million and might be all set for launch in the 2nd half of 2020. That didn’t take place, and the objective continued dealing with hold-ups and boost. The most current public schedule for OSAM-1 revealed a launch date in 2026.
In 2020, after improving the Restore-L objective to end up being OSAM-1, NASA officially set out a spending plan for the relabelled objective. At the time, NASA stated it would cost $1.78 billion to create, develop, launch, and run. An independent evaluation board NASA developed in 2015 to take a look at the OSAM-1 objective approximated the overall task might cost as much as $2.35 billion, according to Jimi Russell, a NASA representative.
The truths of the satellite maintenance market have actually likewise altered considering that 2016. There are a number of business dealing with industrial satellite maintenance innovations, and the satellite market has actually moved far from refueling unprepared spacecraft, as OSAM-1 would have shown with the Landsat 7 Earth-imaging satellite.
Rather, business are focusing more on extending satellite life in other methods. Northrop Grumman has actually established the Objective Extension Vehiclewhich can lock on to a satellite and supply maneuvering ability without cutting into the consumer spacecraft to refuel it. Other business are taking a look at satellites that are created, from the start, with refueling ports. The United States military has a desire to put fuel depots and tankers in orbit to frequently service its satellites, providing the capability to continuously navigate and burn propellant without fretting about lacking fuel.