WASHINGTON - NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp of Dulles, Va. To provide launch services for the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission. Under the contract, ICON is targeted to launch in June 2017 from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands aboard a Pegasus XL launch vehicle from Orbital's "Stargazer" L-1011 aircraft.
The total cost for NASA to launch ICON under this new firm-fixed price launch services task order is approximately $56.3 million. This includes spacecraft processing, payload integration, tracking, data and telemetry and other launch support requirements.
Just last week, NASA cleared the ICON mission to move forward to its development phase, clearing the way for a 2015 critical design review (CDR). ICON will study the interface between the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere and space in response to a recent scientific discovery that the ionosphere, positioned at the edge of space where the sun ionizes the air to create charged particles, is significantly influenced by storms in the lower atmosphere. ICON also will help NASA better understand how atmospheric winds control ionospheric variability.
The last Pegasus XL launch occurred in June 2013. With no firm contracts following that launch, it appeared that the launch vehicle had a limited time left on the market. Increased costs and competition, as well as a focus on alternative launch vehicles at Orbital Sciences also seemed to corroborate that the 2013 launch of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) would be the last.
Many small satellites are now carried into orbit as secondary payloads on larger launch vehicles. However, Orbital Sciences will not have to juggle the time demands of multiple customers. It can also deliver the ICON to an unique orbit without the need to deliver multiple satellites to the same orbit.
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