NASA is exercising a contract option for a Delta II
vehicle to launch STEREO for the Office of Space Science
Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program. The spacecraft is
planned for launch Nov. 15, 2005, from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station (CCAFS), Fla.
This firm-fixed-price option is covered under the NASA Launch
Services Contract awarded by the agency on June 16, 2000. The
contract is with Delta Launch Services, Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of The Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, Calif.
The STEREO mission will provide revolutionary views of the
Sun-Earth system and contain two spacecraft. The first will
lead and the second will lag the Earth in its orbit. STEREO
is designed to trace the flow of energy and matter from the
sun to the Earth; reveal the true three-dimensional structure
of enormous eruptions of matter from the sun, called coronal
mass ejections; and show why they happen. STEREO is also
designed to provide unique alerts for Earth-directed solar
ejections.
NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program Office at
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages STEREO.
The launch service and launch management are the
responsibility of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
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