[10-03-07 – Satellite Today]  Orbital Sciences Corp. has been selected by the California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to design, manufacture, integrate and test the Nuclear Spectroscopic Array (Nustar) scientific satellite, the company announced Oct. 2.

Nustar, which will be based on Orbital’s LEOStar-2 bus, is part of NASA’s Small Explorer series of spacecraft, will use high-energy X-rays to detect black holes and other energetic phenomena, as well as answer questions about the universe. 

The satellite will be launched in 2011 and is intended to bridge the gap in astrophysics missions between the 2009 launch of the Wide-field Infrared Surveyor Explorer and the 2013 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.