Nov. 22, 2016
CONTRACT RELEASE C16-029
NASA Selects Launch Services for Global Surface Water Survey Mission
 
NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne,
California, to provide launch services for the agency's Surface Water and
Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. Launch is targeted for April 2021 on a
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California.
 
The total cost for NASA to launch SWOT is approximately $112 million, which
includes the launch service; spacecraft processing; payload integration;
and tracking, data and telemetry support.
 
Designed to make the first-ever global survey of Earth's surface water, in
addition to high-resolution ocean measurements, the SWOT mission will
collect detailed measurements of how water bodies on Earth change over
time. The satellite will survey at least 90 percent of the globe, studying
Earth's lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans, at least twice every 21 days,
aid in freshwater management around the world, to improve ocean circulation
models and weather and climate predictions. The SWOT spacecraft will be
jointly developed and managed by NASA and the French space agency Centre
National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).
 
NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will
manage the SpaceX launch service. The SWOT Project office at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages spacecraft
development for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
 
For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:
 
http://www.nasa.gov
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

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