NASA has awarded a contract to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland for the agencys Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission Science Operations Center (SOC). WFIRST is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.
The SOC award was issued as a sole-source procurement to provide science operations system engineering, design, science research support, and scientific community engagement and public outreach support for the WFIRST Project. The total value of this cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is approximately $34.6 million. Work under this contract begins this month and runs through September 2021.
AURA/STScI will join a team led by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, which manages the WFIRST mission for the agency.
