United Launch Alliance Will Fly Payloads On Atlas Vs
NASA has selected United Launch Alliance of Littleton, CO for
the launch of two Science Mission Directorate and two Space
Operations Mission Directorate payloads under the NASA Launch
Services contract.
The launches will occur on Atlas V expendable launch vehicles.
The total value of the award is approximately $600 million, which
includes the launch services for the rockets, plus additional
services under other contracts for payload processing, launch
vehicle integration, and tracking, data and telemetry support.
The launches will be from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station, FL. The four payloads are the Radiation Belt
Storm Probes mission, the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, and
the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites K and L, or TDRS-K and
TDRS-L, missions.
Planned for launch in 2011, the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes
mission uses two almost identical spacecraft built by the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. For
two years, the twin probes will study the radiation belts
surrounding Earth to improve our understanding of how the sun's
changing energy flow affects them.
Two new Tracking and Data Relay satellites will be launched,
TDRS-K and TDRS-L, to replenish the NASA communications relay
network that provides voice, data, video and telemetry links
between spacecraft below geosynchronous orbit and the ground. Among
the major users of the relay network are the International Space
Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The launches are planned
for 2012 and 2013.
The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission is a NASA space physics
research effort to discover the fundamental plasma physics
processes of magnetic reconnection that occurs when energy
emanating from the sun's solar wind interacts with the Earth's
magnetic field. Four identical satellites will be launched together
in a stacked configuration. They will fly in an elliptical orbit
around Earth.
The Magnetospheric Multiscale Project is managed by NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD under a contract with
the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The launch is
planned for 2014.
NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida manages launch services, including payload integration and
certifying launch vehicles, for NASA's use.