Aerial view of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2010. Photo by Bill Hrybyk/NASA Goddard
WASHINGTON – Nine Maryland lawmakers wrote NASA this week, demanding to know why the agency is planning the termination of a multibillion-dollar spacecraft program that was developed at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.
The On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 project, known as OSAM-1, was expected to service existing satellites and expand their lifespans in space. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the project “has the potential to offer an innovative solution for extending the lifespans of our satellites while keeping them in orbit.”…