NASA awards Near-Earth Object (NEO) telescope mission contract to SpaceX

NASA has awarded SpaceX a new contract to launch a Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in late 2027 using a Falcon 9 rocket.

This is a firm-fixed-price launch service award from the NASA Launch Services II contract and the total cost is expected to be $100 million. The award includes launch service and other mission-related costs.

According to the information, the NEO Surveyor mission includes a 20-inch diameter telescope that will operate in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It can detect bright and dark asteroids, while previously, the dark ones were difficult to find with existing hardware.

The telescope will improve NASA’s planetary defense research to discover and identify potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit, known as near-earth objects.

NASA Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor (Source – NASA)

The mission will have a lifespan of five years and aims to survey two-thirds of the unknown NEOs larger than 140 meters (460 feet). These objects are large enough to cause major regional damage in the event of an Earth impact.

The telescope uses two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels to measure the NEOs’ size and retrieve information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits.

NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Office provides program management for NEO surveyors and it is being developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The mission is tasked by NASA’s Planetary Science Division within the agency’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA is planning to launch the NEO telescope mission in September 2027 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. However, the mission timing and payload could adjust according to NASA and the weather.

(source)