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.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    I stopped reading news about NASA after one too many “oh the comet interception has been canceled so my-hero can get more money” and “oh the near-orbit solar probe project has been canceled so my-hero can get more money” moments. marx-doomer

    • buckykat [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      My favorite :agony-turbo: one of those is “we’re not gonna put this lunar rover that we already built on a rocket that we’re gonna launch anyway so :my-hero: can get more money”

      Meanwhile China has I think three lunar rovers currently on the moon roving.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        The bazinga car commercial in space moment was deeply demoralizing to me, and even on Hexbear there were some "I’m a leftist butt " treat defenders trying to justify that aforementioned publicly-subsidized bazinga car commercial in space with bullshit excuses like “it was a payload test for the mission™ and they decided to have a little fun with the payload test, did you expect them to not have fun?bootlicker

        The answer is yes. I didn’t ask to subsidize a fucking bazinga car commercial in space.

        If the Apollo moon landing had a mandatory Coca-Cola sign installation moment “for fun” that’d have been crushing for me too.

        • buckykat [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          They just couldn’t think of a single better use for three thousand pounds of payload to solar orbit, right, sure.

          The Falcon 9/heavy is the best amerikkkan launch system since Saturn but that’s not a high bar.