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NASA Adds Vulcan Centaur Launch Services to Launch Services Contract
NASA has awarded a contract modification to United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colorado, to add Vulcan Centaur launch services to the company’s NASA Launch Services II (NLS II) contract, in accordance with the contracts on-ramp provision. The Vulcan Centaur launch service will be available to NASAs Launch Services Program to use for future missions in accordance with the on-ramp provision of NLS II.
The NLS II contracts are multiple award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts with an ordering period through June 2025 and an overall period of performance through December 2027. The NLS II on-ramp provision provides an opportunity annually for new launch service providers to compete for future missions and allows existing launch service providers to introduce launch vehicles not currently on their NLS II contracts.
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NASA Awards Launch Service Contract for TROPICS Mission to Study Storm Processes
NASA has selected Astra Space Inc. to provide a launch service for the agencys Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission. The TROPICS mission consists of a constellation of six CubeSats and will increase the scientific communitys understanding of storm processes.
The launch service contract for the TROPICS mission is a firm fixed-price contract valued at $7.95 million. NASAs Launch Services Program at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the launch service.
The CubeSats, each the size of a shoebox, will provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements that can be used to determine temperature, pressure, and humidity inside hurricanes as they form and evolve. The TROPICS missions high-revisit imaging and sounding observations are enabled by microwave technology developed at the Massachusetts In
Nasa begins to replace the International Space Station
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been chosen by Nasa to begin the replacement of the International Space Station with its successor, the Lunar Gateway.
A Falcon Heavy rocket will carry – in 2024 – the first two elements to make up the Gateway, taking off from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Specifically, the company will provide launch services for two modules of the future space station: the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO). Nasa describes these as the “foundational elements” of the Gateway.
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Artist’s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft, with Europa and Jupiter in the background. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA has decided to launch the multibillion-dollar Europa Clipper mission on a commercial heavy-lift rocket in October 2024, and not on the government-owned Space Launch System, officials said Wednesday.
The decision ends a prolonged dilemma for NASA, which until last year was legally required to launch the Europa Clipper mission on the more expensive Space Launch System. The language passed in previous NASA appropriations bills directed NASA to launch the probe on the SLS rocket, but Congress relented in the fiscal year 2021 spending bill passed in December.
Virgin Orbit s LauncherOne reaches orbit on second attempt
LauncherOne roars into orbit after being dropped by the Cosmic Girl mothership
Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit
It was the second time s a charm as Virgin Orbit s airdropped LauncherOne rocket put 10 NASA CubeSat payloads into low-Earth orbit on the second attempt in less than eight months under the space agency s Launch Services Program (LSP).
On January 17, 2021, at 10:50 am PST (18:50 GMT), the 747-800 Cosmic Girl mothership with the LauncherOne rocket attached to a wing pylon took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. After taking up position about 50 miles (80 km) south of the Channel Islands off the coast of California, the two-stage rocket was dropped before automatically firing and powering into orbit. A previous launch attempt in May 2020 was cut short due to an inflight anomaly.