WASHINGTON
-- NASA has awarded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, an indefinite
delivery/indefinite quantity contract for launch services on the company's
Falcon 1 and planned Falcon 9 launch vehicles, the space agency announced
Tuesday.
The
contract identifies SpaceX of
Hawthorne, Calif., as a potential provider of launches to be ordered
through June 30, 2010, and which would occur by Dec. 31, 2012. The contract
value ranges from $20,000 to $1 billion, depending on the number of missions
awarded, the press release said.
The
contract covers launches of payloads weighing 250 kilograms or more into a
circular orbit at 200 kilometers in altitude and an orbital inclination of 28.5
degrees. Payloads would be launched to support NASA's Science, Space Operations
and Exploration Systems directorates.
SpaceX
is the latest company to be awarded this type of contract from NASA. The
original request for proposals was issued in 1999, and twice per year existing
and emerging domestic launch service providers can submit proposals if their
vehicles meet the minimum NASA requirements, the space agency said.
SpaceX's
Falcon
1 small launcher has failed in two launches to date and is expected to make
a third attempt this year. The larger Falcon 9, still under development, would
launch payloads including SpaceX's planned Dragon space station cargo-delivery
capsule. SpaceX is one of two companies developing space station logistics
systems under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
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