A key NASA commercial partner faces severe financial challenges
A key NASA commercial partner faces severe financial challenges
"The business model had to change."
That's tough to hear. I had high hopes for Axiom. Space is a brutal industry. You can't run a private company the same way you run a government program.
The hope was that they could be cheaper, faster, and more efficient than if NASA developed the suits and station themselves. Axiom underbid, either on purpose to win the contract, or accidentally. This is where the firm fixed price model might be breaking down for NASA.
Axiom's timeline for their station is really dicey because of their dependency on the ISS until they're ready to dive into the deep end on their own. They can't just be 10 years late. I hope they make it. I think it's interesting that they're switching from Thales Alenia to Gravitics for modules. It must be a huge cost saver, but it might be too little, too late. They started off as ISS USOS v1.5, which adds some challenges vs the single module stations that are trying to be Skylab v2.