Axiom Space, the space company NASA picked to develop a private successor to the International Space Station, is in big trouble.

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.

  • buckykat [none/use name]
    ·
    11 hours ago

    Using a Starfleet chevron for the CNSA logo is kinda memeing on us.

    The 2011 no working with China law is going to get funnier and funnier as their moon base progresses.

    • StalinStan [none/use name]
      ·
      7 hours ago

      That's pretty good. I just want them to just use their moon rover to push over the flag we did there. We wouldn't be able to set it back up.

      • buckykat [none/use name]
        ·
        5 hours ago

        That would be the longest rover trip ever by a factor of like several thousand.

        • StalinStan [none/use name]
          ·
          5 hours ago

          Good, that would force us to watch knowing we can do nothing to prevent it. The suspence might even get congress to approve making a moon battle bot to send them to stop them.

        • someone [comrade/them, they/them]
          ·
          5 hours ago

          I've decided I'm going to try to make a 3D-printable TNG-esque commbadge, but using the elements of the CNSA logo. I threw something together to see how it works.

          Show

          I'm not sure how detailed I can get with the laurels though on something that small. I'll make sure to make the STL files available if I do succeed.

          I have a close match to the blue but I'd need some sort of backing to put them on. I'm thinking of a glitter filament, white flecks on black, like a starfield. Or maybe just a glossy black would do.