Axiom Space, the space company NASA picked to develop a private successor to the International Space Station, is in big trouble.

With this project falling behind, and the reducing likelihood of delays in the Lunar Gateway/Artemis program, I think there’s a good chance that NASA and the ESA will not have access to a space station following the ISS’s decommission. It’s not the only “public-private” partnership for an ISS successor, but I don’t think the other candidates are making much progress either.

I also thought that this quote was pretty amusing, and highlights the futility of trying to privately fund commercial station projects:

To bring in some much-needed cash, Axiom Space started selling seats for trips to the ISS on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

It was also awarded a NASA contract to fund a space suit for the first crewed mission to the lunar surface, Artemis III.

But the suit appears to have been a massive distraction — not to mention a major money pit — from its plans to build a space station. SpaceX trips to the existing orbital outpost were also not a sustainable solution to Axiom Space’s woes.

“Turns out that there’s not a lot of billionaires that want to set aside their life for 18 months to go train to be an astronaut for the ISS,” a former Axiom executive told Forbes.

  • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    Funny thing is, that’s already happened for Apollo 11, 14, and 15. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite has imaged the Apollo landing sites and could only see the flags standing upright for Apollo 12, 16, and 17. After 11’s flag was unexpectedly blown down during the return to Earth from the ascent stage rocket’s exhaust gases, NASA decided to put the flags on subsequent missions farther away from the lander. Didn’t seem to work for 14 and 15.

    But there’s a fun and actually heartwarming twist. All the dye in the flags has been bleached out by solar radiation. They’d be recognized as American flags by the sewing stitches if you look really close-up, because the Apollo flags all had the stripes and stars stitched together. But from a distance they’d be pure white, as if we really did come in peace.