NASA reaffirms determination to cancel OSAM-1

WASHINGTON — NASA is continuing with plans to close down a satellite tv for pc servicing mission on the finish of the month after rejecting a proposal to revise the mission to satisfy a 2026 launch date.

In a press release posted on-line Sept. 5, NASA introduced it will proceed with closing out the On-orbit Servicing, Meeting, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) mission, ending work on the mission on the finish of the present fiscal 12 months, which concludes Sept. 30.

NASA introduced March 1 that it had determined to cancel the mission, which was years not on time and much over finances. A fiscal 12 months 2024 appropriations invoice enacted later that month, although, directed NASA to develop a plan that might revise OSAM-1 in a approach that would permit it to launch in 2026.

The company confirmed in August that NASA management had acquired that plan, together with one other that might shut out OSAM-1 on the finish of the fiscal 12 months. “These plans have been offered to NASA management and are being assessed,” a NASA spokesperson stated on the time.

Nonetheless, company management elected to keep up the sooner determination to cancel OSAM-1. “Components that knowledgeable the choice have been value, schedule, and technical threat related to the 2026 launch plan, the return on funding of flying OSAM-1 know-how, unsure know-how infusion path to trade, and impacts on different NASA know-how growth efforts,” NASA acknowledged.

NASA began work on the mission, initially known as Restore-L, a decade in the past, with the objective of refueling the Landsat 7 satellite tv for pc in low Earth orbit. The mission added payloads to carry out in-space meeting and manufacturing actions, such because the meeting of a Ka-band antenna, and was renamed OSAM-1 in 2020.

The mission, although, suffered delays that pushed again its launch from an unique goal of 2020 to a minimum of 2026. Its value grew from an unique projection of $626–753 million to greater than $2 billion.

NASA determined to cancel OSAM-1 after an unbiased overview made that suggestion. “Each cost- and schedule-to-go are substantial and the chance for additional schedule decay and price will increase stays excessive,” that report concluded.

Canceling OSAM-1 might have an effect on a number of hundred jobs, primarily on the Goddard House Flight Heart, the lead middle for the mission. NASA stated in March that about 450 staff and contractors have been engaged on OSAM-1, and that they’d be supported by the tip of the present fiscal 12 months. Goddard staff have been knowledgeable of NASA’s determination reaffirming the OSAM-1 cancellation Sept. 4, in keeping with trade sources.

Among the many corporations that may very well be affected by the choice is Intuitive Machines, which is partnered with KBR on the Omnibus Multidiscipline Engineering Companies (OMES) III contract at Goddard. That contract contains work on OSAM-1.

In an Aug. 13 earnings name, Steve Altemus, chief government of Intuitive Machines, stated his firm had helped develop the plan for a 2026 launch of the mission. “We’ve restructured it for achievement, in order that’s a really optimistic signal,” he stated. Whereas Intuitive Machines is finest recognized for its work on lunar landers, the OMES III contract is a major income for the corporate.

NASA’s determination nonetheless requires the approval of Congress. Senate appropriators included as much as $174.5 million for OSAM-1 in its fiscal 12 months 2025 spending invoice, however the Home model didn’t specify funding for the mission. Each the Home and Senate included caveats about any help for OSAM-1 being depending on creating a possible plan for finishing the mission.

The company famous in its assertion confirming its plans to cancel OSAM-1 that it nonetheless supported general work on in-space servicing, meeting and manufacturing, or ISAM, applied sciences, backing an trade consortium known as COSMIC on the subject and signing an settlement with DARPA to offer experience for its Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program.

NASA added it is going to launch a request for details about partnerships “to additional pursue one of the best and highest use of the mission {hardware}” for OSAM-1, however didn’t disclose when that RFI can be launched or different particulars.

Whereas OSAM-1 is presently the most important single mission in NASA’s House Know-how Mission Directorate, accounting for $206.9 million out of an general finances of $1.1 billion for the directorate in fiscal 12 months 2024, the mission received little consideration throughout a session of the NASA Advisory Council’s know-how committee Sept. 5. Later within the assembly, company officers learn the assertion about NASA’s determination to proceed with closing out OSAM-1.

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