OSAM-1

OSAM-1 (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1) was a 2016-2024 conceptual <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a> mission and spacecraft designed to test on-orbit refueling of satellites. The program was cancelled in 2024, two years ahead of its planned launch date. It was initially known as Restore-L.
Originally scheduled to launch in 2020, its launch at the time of cancellation was planned for no earlier than 2026. The primary objective of the concept mission and spacecraft was the complex refueling of <a href="/facts/Landsat_7/mVTcFqQY">Landsat 7</a>, a satellite launched in 1999, that was not designed for on-orbit servicing. This would have involved grasping the satellite with a mechanical arm, gaining access to the satellite's fuel tank by cutting through insulation and wires and unscrewing a bolt, and then attaching a hose to pump in <a href="/facts/Hydrazine_fuel/G7P5ITzU">hydrazine fuel</a>. At the time the mission was conceived, it was expected to be the first refueling of a satellite in space, and a demonstration of the potential to repair some of the thousands of active satellites in orbit and keep them in operation for a longer time. Because the satellites now in space were not designed to be serviced, there are significant challenges to doing so successfully.
OSAM-1's second objective, added in 2020, was to deploy a separate robot called SPIDER (Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot) to build a new structure in space. Using robots to build and assemble new structural components from scratch would be an important step towards a type of space-based construction that had been impossible to date.

OSAM-1 open-in-new

OSAM-1