One of NASA's biggest upcoming astrophysics missions has been stopped in its tracks, and the project's leader is blaming mismanagement at the space agency caused by last year's budget confusion.
AXIS, the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite, was one of two concepts selected for detailed design studies in NASA’s Astrophysics Probe Explorer program, competing alongside the far-infrared observatory concept PRIMA. AXIS could have replaced NASA's aging Chandra observatory, which has remained a powerhouse of X-ray astronomy since 1999, but the project is coming to an abrupt halt.
