SpaceX wins NASA's StarBurst rideshare launch-services award

NASA has awarded SpaceX launch services for StarBurst, a small gamma-ray observatory intended to investigate neutron-star mergers and short gamma-ray bursts. The agency's September 17 contract release says StarBurst is planned to fly on a Falcon 9 Bandwagon rideshare from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, no earlier than 2028.

The award is a firm-fixed-price task order under NASA's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract, the agency said. The $1 billion ceiling NASA lists applies to the 10-year VADR contracting vehicle across all contracts, not to the StarBurst task order; the release does not disclose StarBurst's launch price.

Lumacta separately reported the award on September 20, also identifying the future Falcon 9 Bandwagon flight and the absence of a specific launch day or task-order amount. That agreement is a launch-services procurement step, not a completed launch, payload deployment or scientific observation.

NASA says StarBurst is designed to observe the part of the sky not blocked by Earth for the initial high-energy emission from short gamma-ray bursts. Its September 17 release says scientists plan to combine those observations with gravitational-wave measurements and follow-up telescope observations. The agency has not identified a particular Bandwagon mission, booster, launch date or expected science result in the award notice.