NASA Awards Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers Contract

NASA has announced the award of the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers, or P-POD, service contract to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. This new contract is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity award for five years with a maximum cumulative potential value of $5 million. The award will provide a broad range of P-POD services for NASA’s CubeSat program.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than 2.2 pounds.
NASA has adapted the P-POD system for a series of small university-class, student-built satellite missions as part of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program. This is intended to advance the objectives of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs within educational institutions.

The first launch is planned aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in October 2011, on a mission to launch a polar-orbiting weather and environmental satellite.

NASA’s Launch Services Program office at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for management of the P-POD contract.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov