SpaceX appears to be pursuing a series of awards for NASA launch contracts and winning $ 98.8 million to launch a spacecraft launching the galaxy map, known as SPHEREx, in 2024.
The primary scientific goal of SPHEREx is to better understand and quantify the state of the universe relative to the big bang, designed to conduct surveys of hundreds of millions to billions of stars and galaxies. Furthermore, the space telescope can be used to map the presence of water ice in the Milky Way, which could potentially help determine the role that ice plays in star and planetary formation.
Oddly enough, the best current estimate of the mass of SPHEREx captures the small but capable space telescope at about 200 kg (440 lb). ‘It’s just a little too big for Pegasus [XL] now, but it’s quite a small thing, ‘according to lead investigator Jamie Bock in a 2019 interview. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exceeds such a small payload and can deliver at least 5-10 tons to SPHEREx’s 700 kilometer (~ 435 miles) polar orbit.
At nearly $ 99 million, it’s also a relatively expensive Falcon 9 launch contract, although it continues a recent trend of the rocket winning nearly nine-digit launch contracts for small NASA scientific spacecraft. According to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), NASA still reserved $ 120 million for the launch contract of SPHEREx, which means that SpaceX probably saved the US taxpayer more than $ 21 million compared to the cheapest possible ULA Atlas V setup. In total, including launch costs, the SPHEREx mission is now expected to cost NASA approximately $ 340 million.
To make the NASA award even more bizarre, SpaceX won a $ 80.4 million contract to launch NASA’s $ 900 million PACE Oceanography Observatory on a Falcon 9 rocket in the same year as SPHEREx. It’s hard to explain why NASA’s Launch Service Program (LSP) would pay nearly 25% more as PACE to launch SPHEREx, a spacecraft that is several times smaller and less than half the total cost. However, SPHEREx is not alone, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket also won a $ 106 million NASA contract for the ~ $ 750 million IMAP mission, $ 50 million for the ~ $ 140 million IXPE mission, To launch $ 112 million for the SWOT. mission, and $ 69 million to launch NASA’s $ 250 million DART spacecraft.
At the same time, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket and Firefly’s Alpha – both actively working with NASA – could probably deliver SPHEREx for as much as $ 50-80 million on its intended orbit. less as the cost of SpaceX’s launch contract.
Finally, SPHEREx continues a streak of lucrative wins for the launch contract for SpaceX, further strengthening its strong relationship with NASA as it begins launching increasingly important science launches on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.