NASA Awards Mars Science Lab Launch Contract

[OXO]

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has selected Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc. to deliver an Atlas V rocket for the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which aims to land a large rover on the red planet in the fall of 2009.

The six-wheeled, Volkswagen-sized rover would explore Mars for a designed mission lifetime of two years, examining sites to identify where the building blocks for life once may have existed.

The total MSL launch service price is $194.7 million. That cost includes NASA launch services and mission integration requirements. This is a firm-fixed price contract. The launch services for the mission are being acquired under NASA's existing launch services multiple-award procedures.

Full write up here http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/NASA_Awards_Mars_Science_Lab_Launch_Contract.html

Should be something worth looking forward to me thinks

James