An artist's concept of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

NASA has issued a change order, effective November 10, 2003, to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) contract with the Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona, in Tucson, Arizona.

The change order implements a re-plan to the JWST NIRCam instrument program to reflect the planned launch date of August 2011, announced earlier this year. In addition, the change order implements changes to the NIRCam detector subsystem, design and development requirements. Several University of Arizona team members will carry out these changes. Rockwell Scientific, LLC of Thousand Oaks, Calif., will provide the focal plane assemblies. Lockheed Martin Advanced Technologies Center of Palo Alto, Calif., will provide the focal plane electronics, software, and the filter wheel assemblies.

The JWST NIRCam contract was competitively awarded to the University on July 17, 2002. The primary goal of JWST is to observe the early universe at an age between one million and a few billion years. The University is responsible for the scientific investigation entitled "NIRCam for JWST: Probing Origins." The contract extends through launch, plus six months of on-orbit checkout and five years of mission operations. The contract type is cost-reimbursement (no fee). The change order has a not-to-exceed amount of $53.8 million.