Orbital Sciences has secured a $56.3m contract from Nasa to provide launch services for the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) programme.
Under the contract, Orbital will provide spacecraft processing, payload integration, tracking, data and telemetry and other launch support services.
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The ICON is scheduled for launch in June 2017 on-board a Pegasus XL launch vehicle from Orbital’s Stargazer L-1011 aircraft.
The satellite will lift-off from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It is designed to study the interface between the upper Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
Nasa said: "ICON also will help Nasa better understand how atmospheric winds control ionospheric variability."
The latest contract comes after Orbital was selected to design, manufacture, integrate and test the satellite.
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By GlobalDataOrbital was responsible to deliver its LEOStar-2 spacecraft platform and conduct systems integration and test for the ICON mission.
The company has developed various explorer satellites for Nasa, including the in-orbit NuSTAR, Swift, GALEX, AIM and IBEX spacecraft.
The Pegasus XL launch services will be managed by Nasa’s launch services programme at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Led by the University of California, Berkeley, the ICON mission is managed by the Explorer programme at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
