SpaceX to Launch NASA’s Pandora Mission

SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturing company based at Starbase in Texas, has been awarded a task order by NASA to provide the launch service for the Pandora mission.

NASA said Monday the selection of SpaceX is part of the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare program. The VADR launch services contract looks to enable NASA to issue fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards throughout the five-year ordering period. It has a $300 million ceiling value.

Pandora Mission: Exploring Exoplanets

The mission is a joint effort of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and aims to explore at least 20 exoplanets and their host stars. During the one-year mission, the Pandora small satellite will monitor each exoplanet 10 times and study it for 24 hours. The objective is to determine how our observations of exoplanet atmospheres are affected by changes in the stars.

Pandora is developed to utilize a 17-inch all-aluminum telescope to gather crucial data about the exoplanet and its host star during transits or when the planet crosses in front of the star it orbits. It would simultaneously measure the host star’s visible and near-infrared brightness while capturing near-infrared spectra of the transiting planet.

Scientists would then be able to separate the signals from the start and exoplanet, enhancing data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming missions aimed at discovering habitable planets like the Habitable Worlds Observatory.

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