NASA Cancels OSAMS-1 Mission Worth IDR 32.1 Trillion

JAKARTA The On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM-1) mission continues to experience delays. After no clarity on the launch,NASA decided to cancel the mission.

This announcement was made by Principal Affairs Officer Jimmy Russell some time ago. Jimi said that NASA had reviewed his project in depth and decided that OSAM-1 should be discontinued due to several challenges.

"Technical challenges, costs, and a continuing schedule as well as the wider community evolution of the project, an unprepared spacecraft refueler, which has led to a lack of committed partners," said Jimi.

The decision shared on the company's blog will be officially submitted to Congress. After Congress learned of the news, Jimi said that the OSAM-1 mission would be stopped by his project management.

"The project management plans to complete the closure in an orderly manner, including sensitive hardware dispositions, seeking potential partnerships or the use of alternative hardware," said Jimi.

After the OSAM-1 mission is cancelled, some employees will lose their jobs. Jimi explained that NASA leaders are looking for ways to reduce the impact of the mission's cancellation on workers at the Goddard Space Aviation Center.

OSAM-1 is a mission that began about a decade ago under the name Restore-L. The mission is planned to launch in 2020 to refuel Landsat 7, an observation satellite launched in 1999.

After years of being known as Restore-L, NASA decided to change the name of the mission to OSAM-1. Unfortunately, this mission had to be postponed due to the increasingly swollen and uncontrolled launch fees.

The OSAM-1 mission was originally projected to be between US$626 million (Rp7.8 trillion) to US$753 million (Rp11.8 trillion). This figure has increased to US$2.05 billion (Rp32.1 trillion) and its mission has been postponed until December 2026.

This delay is considered not going well due to the problem of funds and payloads. If this satellite is maintained, the funds for its mission are expected to increase to USD 2.7 billion (IDR 122.4 trillion). Therefore, NASA agreed to stop its mission.