The First Commercial Space Station Is Running Into Problems

Back in 2020, NASA selected Axiom Space to provide at least one habitable commercial module to be attached to the International Space Station. At the time they were awarded $140 million to begin development and manufacturing.

Since then the company has contracted out that core station build and is nearing the completion of the initial module. However, new information suggests they are running into financial issues that could reduce the station’s size and threaten the project as a whole. Here I will go more in-depth into the concerns, current progress, what this means for the future, and more.

Credit:

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:31 - Financial & Time Concerns
4:27 - Current Progress

[antonnym]

The mismanagement is a shame, because Axiom has some very good thinking going into their designs.

[metriczeppelin]

Four years late and over budget?? Boeing should be proud of them.

[OhShiitakeMushrooms]

The bigger question at this point is…”who’s NOT running into problems and delays?

[chucksterock]

Why am I not surprised that Suffredini doesn't know how to do fixed price? The old school contracting companies are having an extremely hard time adjusting and are behind the times.

[debott]

Can we just take a second to appreciate how good we've had it with the ISS during the last quarter century? 25 years of continuous human presence in space continues to be a marvel.

[MadJustin]

An ex Nasa exec not understanding how to run a company without a massive federal budget sounds about right.

[goldenpacificmedia]

I have some questions for the author of this channel.
1. Does Axiom's docking capability to other modules accept ISS modules?
2. If so, has NASA permitted Axiom to discuss with JAXA or ESA the move of Kibo or Columbus to the Axiom core?
3. If the docking capability is not present, perhaps a docking adapter can be added to Axiom's design to permit the movement of Kibo and Columbus to Axiom's core for about 5-10 years?
4. What is the design lifetime of the Kibo and Columbus modules? Can these modules be moved to Axiom's core given their age?

[smallpeople]

I think all this news of cost overruns and time delays should just be rephrased into “VC’s/investors wildly underestimate the costs and time required to actually step into space”. It’s endemic in the industry, starting many decades ago and being a consistent feature. Any initial estimate can and should be 10x in cost and at least 3x in time by default when talking about space.

[wkjeeping]

Just another NASA company with the ceo running NASA for 30 years.

[rickvisser]

the viewing room is such a money throw away. Yeah its cool... but basicly. Its an office building renting modules/floors. So instead of a viewing room as a brag... they should do an extra working module and get that rented out for cashflow before making the top corneroffice.

[georgeshapiro]

I mean, it's also possible the ISS stays up longer than is currently planned. The mission has been extended before, and there is the possibility of issues with SpaceX's contract or some other cause for delay.

[jimfar]

HERE IS THE ISSUE- when you give someone $140 million dollars- I don't care who they are- here is the first thing they buy-
1) new houses
2) new cars
3) vacation homes
4) vacations
5) new homes for closest friends or startup buddies
6) more new cars and houses for startup buddies
7) THEN they may start to plan on building or constructing- but ONLY after a few
8) THEN THEY START ASKING FOR MORE TAXPAYER MAD MONEY- AND REPEAT FROM ISSUE #1.

[stevieathome]

Axiom business plan has too few opportunities for interim cash flow

[devindykstra]

Spaceflight project delayed!
In other news, the sky is still blue

[i-love-space]

It seems like this is always the weakness of the NASA designs (and anyone connected to them like Axiom) -- they have gotten accustomed to relying on someone else for power and control. The NASA ISS designs were ambitious and ended up with massive solar power in the long run, but the ISS initially relied on the Russian module for attitude control and power in the beginning. (This has made the end of life a problem to be solved by SpaceX, since the ISS STILL relies on the Russian module for propulsion and attitude control.) Here Axiom's design is supposed to be an ISS "parasite" in the beginning, and only get power and control self-sufficiency at the end.
I think it will be a great thing to develop a life support/ power/control module early on. Then, when the big solar panel module arrives at the end of construction, they have redundancy for the lifetime of the station. Power, life support, and attitude control is existential for an orbital station, so it needs redundancy.

[Wrangler-fpei]

That's rather disheartening news. I should really not be surprised to hear that there was something wrong with that company. It's too bad it took them eight years to change the leadership after so long and late in the game. They should have recognized that there was an issue, however I don't think there's much that can be done at this point. NASA will probably have to intervene in some point or some way to try to help them. If they do have to skim modules I think they may have to take more modules from the ISS then they had planned to. Hopefully the ones they get if they do this, will be in good shape and will supplement the foolishness of the attitude of CEO who really didn't understand what was going on.

[drfranks]

Space exploration, exploitation needs a major shift in the way we do things. Constantly throwing money at companies that never deliver on time, or on budget has to stop. Progress is too slow when everyone is trying to extract as much income as possible for little to no results. 50 years ago humans walked on the moon, now we have trouble getting to LEO. Lot's of money got made though... right?

[ghost]

IMHO, they should put up the power/life-support equipment module and habitat module first.

[noahgossett]

I bet elon musk and their team could easily save the day showing them the right way to mass manufacture sustainability and a reasonable deadline.

[rgberry]

Axiom should have focused on building a research/manufacturing module and a power module. They should have simply bought a Hab-1 from Sierra Space to give them an accommodation module. This doing it all themselves attitude could potentially cause them to go under. Shame.