Workforce disruptions and budget confusion have been reshaping NASA’s operations throughout 2025, and one of the agency’s most anticipated astrophysics missions is now paying the price.
AXIS — the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite — has been ruled ineligible for selection in NASA‘s Astrophysics Probe Explorer program. The decision ends the project before its concept study could receive a full technical review. Christopher Reynolds, the mission’s Principal Investigator, informed the international team in an internal email dated March 9 that NASA Headquarters made the call, and he places the blame squarely on mismanagement within the agency.
“NASA’s decision was NOT a judgment of the importance of AXIS science,” Reynolds wrote in the email, which was later posted to social media. “The mission formulation process was critically compromised by the seismic shifts occurring in NASA and the Federal government.”
A Cascade of Losses at Goddard
The project was managed out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which experienced severe operational instability over the past year. According to Reynolds’ email, AXIS lost more than 20 Goddard personnel with key expertise — departures tied to NASA’s Deferred Resignation Program and reorganizations aligned with the 2026 presidential budget request.
Among those who left was Will Zhang, a scientist NASA describes as a “mirror-making whiz” for space telescopes. Zhang took the Deferred Resignation Program and retired early. His departure was significant: the single-crystal silicon mirror assemblies he pioneered at Goddard were the key enabling technology for AXIS. A Goddard scientist familiar with the matter, speaking without authorization to represent NASA, told the source that a primary goal during Phase A was to get at least one of those mirror assemblies built to prove the technology was feasible. None were built.
“It seemed like every week there was an announcement that someone was leaving the AXIS team due to retirement or finding a different job, all because of the uncertainty with NASA funding and the truly chaotic environment at GSFC,” the scientist said.
A Shutdown, An Extension, and a Dead End
Work on AXIS halted for nearly seven weeks when the core Goddard study team — composed predominantly of NASA civil servants — was furloughed during the government shutdown. NASA later extended the Concept Study Report deadline, but Reynolds wrote that the extension was “inadequate compensation for the disruption and lost time” needed to address cost and schedule problems that had already been identified.
The situation came to a head when Goddard leadership gave AXIS managers a binary choice: submit a Concept Study Report with a non-compliant cost and schedule, or submit nothing at all. The team’s appeal to bring the design into compliance through discussions typically held during the review process was rejected by NASA, which called that option “unacceptable,” according to Reynolds.
AXIS had been one of two concepts selected for detailed design studies in the Astrophysics Probe Explorer program, competing alongside the far-infrared observatory concept PRIMA. The mission had been considered a potential successor to the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has operated since 1999.
Reynolds’ next step, as stated in the email, was notifying the mission’s international team members of the decision and its causes.
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