NASA Selects SpaceX to Launch Mission to Detect Gamma Rays

There has been a lot of talk in the past few hours about what was announced on July 2nd by NASALet’s talk about the custom contract. SpaceX Or to the American space company Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, to launch a small vehicle in 2027. Gamma ray astronomy mission Explorer or SMEX class. The mission will be carried out on board the Falcon 9.

To go into more detail about this topic, we can say that the launch will concern the Compton Spectrometer and Imager spacecraft, referred to as COSI abbreviationAccording to the first rumors, it appears that the costs associated with the launch contract and related activities will amount to about $69 million.

Mission objective

What is the mission objective? If that is the question you are asking yourself, I am happy to answer it by saying that the spacecraft in question will be tasked with detecting soft gamma rays Coming from sources in and beyond the galaxy. In fact, NASA has chosen the spacecraft Compton spectrometer and imager Oh Cozy In 2021 by integrating it into smx program.

The launch was originally scheduled for 2025, but only later did NASA decide to slow down the work and more specifically extend the design work for Phase B in order to reduce costs. This consequently led to the postponement of its launch, which is now no longer scheduled for 2025 but for 2025. 2027.

COSI passed confirmation review last April, but it’s not possible to accurately estimate the true cost since NASA doesn’t appear to have made any statement on the subject. In fact, not everyone knows about it. Limited budget caused delays. Not only with COSI but also with the space probe. UV Explorer It is indicated with the abbreviation OvexIn fact, NASA also postponed the launch, which was initially scheduled for 2028, to 2030 in this case.