SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch gamma-ray astronomy mission

WASHINGTON — NASA has chosen SpaceX to launch a small gamma-ray astronomy mission on a Falcon 9 in 2027.

NASA introduced July 2 that it awarded a contract to SpaceX to launch the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) spacecraft, a small Explorer-class, or SMEX, mission into low Earth orbit. The contract, valued at about $69 million, covers the August 2027 launch and associated actions.

A NASA spokesperson informed SpaceNews the company couldn’t launch particulars on the variety of corporations that bid on the launch, which was performed as a activity order by the NASA Launch Companies 2 contract car. Such data is taken into account “supply choice delicate,” the company mentioned.

NASA chosen COSI in 2021 as a part of the SMEX program with an estimated price on the time, not together with launch, of $145 million. The spacecraft, whose instrument is predicated on a model flown on high-altitude balloons, will detect smooth gamma rays from sources within the galaxy and past akin to from the annihilation of positrons within the Milky Manner.

On the time NASA picked COSI for improvement, the mission was projected to launch in 2025. NASA, although, slowed down work on COSI, extending its Part B design work, to scale back near-term prices. That pushed out its launch to 2027.

Slowing down missions in the end will increase their total price, Mark Clampin, NASA astrophysics division director, mentioned at a June 28 assembly of the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Nationwide Academies’ House Research Board. NASA has not launched an up to date price estimate for COSI, which did go its affirmation assessment in April.

COSI shouldn’t be alone in going through delays due to constrained budgets. In February, NASA picked one other Explorer-class astrophysics mission, the Ultraviolet Explorer (UVEX) spacecraft, however pushed again its launch from 2028 to 2030. As with COSI, NASA mentioned it might prolong Part B design work on UVEX “to accommodate finances challenges.” NASA additionally declined to pick a smaller “mission of alternative” as a part of that competitors, once more due to finances pressures.

Clampin cited these price points on the committee whereas emphasizing that he needed to keep up a stability between massive and small missions. “I bought the decadal advice that I’ve to keep up a cadence” of Explorer missions, he mentioned on the committee assembly. “I’m making an attempt to maintain them shifting ahead.” That features one other name for proposals for SMEX missions in 2025.

That assembly included a dialogue about research of potential modifications to operations of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Hubble House Telescope to scale back their prices. The report from that Operations Paradigm Change Evaluate shall be launched on the finish of July, Clampin mentioned, after a presentation at a gathering of the Astrophysics Advisory Committee July 23-24.

Regardless of the finances pressures, NASA was in a position to economize with COSI’s launch. The company’s fiscal 12 months 2025 finances projected spending $26 million much less on the mission in fiscal years 2025 by 2027 than the projections in its 2024 finances proposal. “This finances displays financial savings as a result of a decreased launch car estimate from the launch companies supplier, which resulted in an total lower to the LCC,” or lifecycle price, the proposal acknowledged. The proposal, launched in March, didn’t establish SpaceX because the launch supplier.

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