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Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington                       June 6, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Nancy Neal
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-0039)

RELEASE:  c03-r

WEBB SPACECRAFT SCIENCE & OPERATIONS CENTER CONTRACT AWARDED

     NASA awarded the Association of Universities for 
Research in Astronomy (AURA) the contract to manage the 
James Webb Space Telescope Science and Operations Control 
Center. AURA is a non-profit consortium of educational 
institutions formed to operate astronomical observatories.
The contract is for products and services required to 
prepare the science program; develop ground systems; provide 
science and engineering support; provide integration and 
test support; perform educational and public outreach; 
perform flight and science operations during the launch and 
commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
AURA will manage the Science & Operations Control Center at 
the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The 
total estimated contract value is $162.2 million. This 
procurement will result in a cost-plus-fixed-fee type 
contract. The period of the contract is from now through 
launch, plus one year.

The JWST is scheduled for launch in 2011 aboard an 
expendable launch vehicle. It will take about three months 
for the spacecraft to reach its destination. The JWST will 
reach an orbit approximately 1.5 million kilometers (940,000 
miles) in space, called the second Lagrange Point (L2), 
where the spacecraft is balanced between the gravity of the 
sun and the Earth.

To see deep into space, the JWST will carry instruments 
sensitive to the infrared wavelengths of the electromagnetic 
spectrum. The new telescope will carry a near-infrared 
camera, a multi-object spectrometer and a mid-infrared 
camera/spectrometer. Infrared capabilities are required to 
help astronomers understand how galaxies first emerged after 
the rapid expansion and cooling of the universe, a few 
hundred million years after the big bang.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages 
the JWST for the Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, 
Washington. The program has industry, academic and 
governmental partners, including the European and Canadian 
Space Agencies.

For information about NASA and Space Science Programs on the 
Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For information about the JWST on the Internet, visit:

http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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