MSGID: 1:3828/7 a4077729
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

--- DB 3.99 + W10 (1607)