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Space
Space
Science
Andrew Jones

NASA cancels multibillion-dollar on-orbit satellite servicing mission

Illustration of two satellites docking in orbit, with a field of stars in the background.

NASA has canceled a complex and costly satellite-servicing demonstration mission.

The On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM)-1 spacecraft was to use a robotic arm and other tools to grapple the Landsat 7 Earth-observation satellite and refuel it. OSAM-1 also would have carried the Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot (SPIDER) payload, which included a lightweight 16-foot (5 meters) robotic arm that was designed to help it assemble an antenna while in orbit.

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