Friday, October 20, 2017

SpaceX Wins New $97M Launch Contract With NASA

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has been selected by NASA for a new launch contract, to launch NASA's Sentinel-6A mission into space, NASA said on Thursday. According to NASA, it is targeting launch of its Sentinel-6A from Vandenberg Air Force Base in November 2020. NASA said total cost for it to launch the new mission will be approximately $97M, including launch services and other mission related costs. The Sentinel-6A mission (also known as Jason Continuity of Service, Jason-CS), is a joint effort between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the European Space Agency, and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and will provide ongoing monitoring of global sea surface heights, which are used for weather prediction and other efforts. NASA is running the Sentinel-6 program out of Pasadena at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida managing the SpaceX launch service.

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