SpaceX Secures NASA Contract for COSI Space Telescope Launch
The firm-fixed-price contract is valued at approximately $69 million and includes launch services and associated mission costs. The COSI mission is scheduled to launch in August 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
This wide-field gamma-ray telescope aims to investigate energetic phenomena within the Milky Way and beyond, such as the formation and annihilation of matter and antimatter and the final phases of stellar evolution. NASA's COSI mission will explore the origins of galactic positrons in the Milky Way, identify nucleosynthesis sites, conduct gamma-ray polarization studies, and detect counterparts to multi-messenger sources. The compact Compton telescope offers enhanced sensitivity, spectral and angular resolution, and sky coverage to support major scientific discoveries.
The mission involves collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, the University of California, San Diego, the Naval Research Laboratory, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and Northrop Grumman.
The COSI mission is managed by a principal investigator-led team at the University of California, Berkeley. NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, oversees the project's development for the Astrophysics Division within NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages the launch services.
Tiernan Doyle [email protected] [email protected]
Related Links
COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager)
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
