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Links: Polyphonic Ringtones |
NASA today awarded three new contracts toward development of the $443 million Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), a high-priority astrophysics mission to explore the birth and evolution of the universe, planned for launch as early as 2001. Lockheed-Martin Missiles and Space of Sunnyvale, CA, and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, CO, were chosen to team with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, to design, develop, test and integrate SIRTF. JPL manages the SIRTF project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Ball was chosen to design and develop the cryogenic telescope assembly. Lockheed-Martin was selected to provide the SIRTF spacecraft, and, under a separate contract, to perform SIRTF's system-level integration and test. The contracts are collectively valued at about $160 million, with $20 million allotted for definition work (Phase B) beginning in October 1996 and continuing for 18 months. Another $140 million would be provided for work during the project's design and development period (Phase C/D), pending Congressional approval in Fiscal Year 1998. "SIRTF is a major step forward in the design of infrared astronomical space observatories," said Dr. Frank Giovane, SIRTF Program Executive, NASA Headquarters. "It incorporates the most advanced detector and telescope technology, the result of years of research by American industry. Consequently, SIRTF will far exceed the capabilities of previous infrared telescopes, and I believe it will make major advances in our understanding of the universe." |