Artist rendition of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite.
Photo: NASA

[Via Satellite 10-23-13] NASA has awarded Astrotech Space Operations (ASO) a contract to provide facilities and pre-launch processing services for the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission to launch in late 2014 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

DSCOVR is the second mission awarded under the previously announced $9.1 million NASA Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract with ASO Florida. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force also are partners on this mission.

Orbiting one million miles from Earth, DSCOVR will provide advance warning for severe solar storms that may adversely affect power grids, communications, aircraft and GPS navigation on Earth as well as spacecraft operations.

ASO Florida has provided payload processing for NASA satellites before, such as RBSP, Juno, SDO, LRO/LCROSS, GRAIL and TDRS-K. TDRS-L will arrive for processing later this year. Another space weather mission, MMS, is slated for mid-2014 launch.