NASA to Choose SpaceX for 2027 Gamma-Ray Astronomy Mission Launch with Falcon 9 Rocket

TapTechNews July 3rd news, on July 2nd, NASA announced that it will choose SpaceX to use the Falcon 9 rocket to launch a small gamma-ray astronomy mission in 2027.

NASA announced the awarding of a launch contract to SpaceX to send the Compton Spectrometer Imager (COSI) detector into low Earth orbit. COSI is a small project in NASA's Explorer Program (SMEX). The contract is valued at approximately $69 million (TapTechNews note: currently about 503 million Chinese yuan), covering the launch in August 2027 and related activities.

A NASA spokesperson said that due to the information belonging to the source selection sensitive category, the specific number of companies participating in the bidding cannot be disclosed.

The COSI project was selected by NASA's Explorer Program in 2021, and the estimated total cost (excluding launch) at that time was $145 million. The instrument carried by this detector is based on the high-altitude balloon version and can detect soft gamma rays from the Milky Way and beyond, such as gamma rays produced by positron annihilation in the Milky Way.

NASA initially planned to launch COSI in 2025, but in order to reduce costs, some design work (Phase B) was postponed, resulting in the launch being postponed to 2027.