NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., has awarded a five-year contract with a total potential value of $9.9 million to the University of Texas Center for Space Research for continued provision of highly specialized support to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.

GRACE is an Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) mission managed by the ESSP Program Office for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. The GRACE mission provides highly accurate Earth gravity fields on a temporal and spatial scale suitable for Earth system science research.

The GRACE mission launched in 2002 and had a five-year mission. Based on its success, the mission has been extended several times.

The contract provides for the continued support to the mission, including principal investigator-led oversight activities, science team support, participation in science operations and management, science algorithm and software development and maintenance, validation and data product generation, distribution and archival, science community user support, and publication of results in scientific journals and technical meetings.

The $5.4 million award is a two-year base effort, plus an “Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity” maximum of $4.5 million for issuance of task orders over the five-year period of performance. The total potential value is $9.9 million.

For more information about Langley go to http://www.nasa.gov/langley