NASA discontinues billion-euro satellite refueling project

Better an end with horror than horror without end? That’s probably what the US space agency NASA thought when it drew the line under its satellite refueling project. After the ambitious project had swallowed up a whopping 2 billion US dollars without producing any useful results, there was certainly no alternative to this step.

NASA abandons project

With OSAM-1, NASA wanted to achieve nothing less than a small revolution in orbit. The aim of the project was to develop a way of refueling satellites. The purpose behind it was to breathe new life into older satellites. However, the US space agency has now officially announced that the project will be scrapped due to various problems. There had apparently been an in-depth, independent “project review” at NASA. This had come to the conclusion that it did not make sense to continue the project. This is mainly due to the fact that there is now a lack of potential applications in practice. Satellite refueling only makes sense when satellites have no refueling capability. However, this is now the case for many models. This can be seen in an article on the Gizmondo blog.

• Fancy a Mars simulation? NASA is looking for volunteers for space mission

Agency chose the wrong supporter

But could the project have been successful? Absolutely. After all, there are already countless old satellites in orbit that could be given a new lease of life with a tank of fuel. OSAM-1 would have worked as follows. A spacecraft with robotic arms would have flown to the satellite in question. Once on site, it would have gained access to the fuel tanks and supplied them with new fuel using a complex method. However, NASA needed a committed partner to put this basic idea into practice. The US agency hoped to find this in the company Maxar.

However, even during the project, it became clear that this would not be a truly fruitful collaboration. In autumn 2023, NASA’s Inspector General emphasized that Maxar would deliver a “poor performance”. He even accused the company of a lack of expertise. From an ecological point of view, NASA’s project would certainly have been smart. After all, there are currently many satellites in orbit with which it is simply no longer possible to make contact. A little fuel could help to at least guide them into the Earth’s atmosphere in order to achieve a controlled burn-up.