WASHINGTON — NASA has disqualified one of the two proposals for a large astrophysics mission, a decision the project's leader blames on upheaval within the agency last year.
In a March 9 email, Christopher Reynolds, principal investigator for the proposed Advanced X-Ray Imaging Satellite, or AXIS, told members of the project team that NASA Headquarters had informed him the mission was "not eligible for selection.
The decision came before NASA reviewed a concept study recently completed by the AXIS team and is instead based on the project's own assessment that it missed its budget and schedule requirements, he said in the email, seen by SpaceNews.
