The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy’s Space Telescope Science Institute has received a two-year, $34.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to perform research support, systems engineering, design, public outreach support and scientific community engagement efforts for a science operations center in line with a NASA initiative.
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope project seeks to develop a space observatory to investigate fundamental topics in dark energy, infrared astrophysics and exoplanet detection research, NASA said Tuesday. NASA also intends to use the planned observatory to measure the history of cosmic acceleration, complete Kepler Space Telescope’s exoplanet census and study dark energy phenomena.Â
AURA/STSci will partner with a team from the Goddard Space Flight Center in the performance of contract work. Contract work started on Monday and is set to conclude by September 2021.