NASA Awards Launch Services Contract For OCO-2 Mission

wrote:
CONTRACT RELEASE: C10-036

NASA AWARDS LAUNCH SERVICES CONTRACT FOR OCO-2 MISSION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp. of
Dulles, Va., to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2)
mission. The spacecraft will fly in February 2013 aboard a Taurus XL
3110 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The total cost of the OCO-2 launch services is approximately $70
million.

The estimated cost includes the task ordered launch service for a
Taurus XL 3110 rocket, plus additional services under other
contracts for payload processing, OCO-2 mission unique support,
launch vehicle integration, and tracking, data and telemetry
support.

Any bets as to whether this one will go any better than the last? I
suppose that as the "incumbent" Orbital had the inside track on OCO-2,
even though they botched the launch of OCO-1 but still, $70 million?
Particularly if this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_XL

and the assertion that the failed launch for OCO-1 was $54 million is
accurate.

rick jones
--
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On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:34:42 +0000 (UTC), Rick Jones
wrote:

Any bets as to whether this one will go any better than the last? I
suppose that as the "incumbent" Orbital had the inside track on OCO-2,
even though they botched the launch of OCO-1 but still, $70 million?
Particularly if this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_XL

and the assertion that the failed launch for OCO-1 was $54 million is
accurate.

$54 million is probably just the rocket. The launch services contract
is more than just the rocket (payload preparation too, among other
things.)

Brian