NASA is exercising a contract option for a Delta 2 vehicle to launch STEREO for the Office of Space Science Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program. The spacecraft is planned for launch Nov. 15, 2005, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Fla.

File image of Boeing Delta 2 rocket lifting off. Photo: NASA-KSC

This firm-fixed-price option is covered under the NASA Launch Services Contract awarded by the agency on June 16, 2000. The contract is with Delta Launch Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, Calif.

The STEREO mission will provide revolutionary views of the Sun-Earth system and contain two spacecraft. The first will lead and the second will lag the Earth in its orbit. STEREO is designed to trace the flow of energy and matter from the sun to the Earth; reveal the true three-dimensional structure of enormous eruptions of matter from the sun, called coronal mass ejections; and show why they happen. STEREO is also designed to provide unique alerts for Earth-directed solar ejections.

NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program Office at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages STEREO. The launch service and launch management are the responsibility of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.