[Satellite TODAY 11-25-10] Commercial aerospace services provider Astrotech Corp. has won a fully-funded task order under the U.S. Department of Defense’s $35 million Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, Astrotech announced Nov. 24.
    The company will provide facilities and payload processing services from its VAFB location in support of NASA‘s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) mission scheduled to launch in October 2011.
    Astrotech has been awarded six out of seven of the NASA VAFB IDIQ missions awarded to date. NPP is a joint mission to extend key measurements in support of long-term monitoring of climate trends and of global biological productivity. The mission aims to provide atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity sounding, land and ocean biological productivity, and cloud and aerosol properties.