Tracy Young<br />Kennedy Space Center, Fla. <br />(Phone: 321/867-2468)<br /><br /><br />RELEASE: c03-tt<br /><br /><br />NASA EXERCISES DELTA II CONTRACT OPTION FOR STEREO<br /><br /><br /> NASA is exercising a contract option for a Delta II <br />vehicle to launch STEREO for the Office of Space Science <br />Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program. The spacecraft is <br />planned for launch Nov. 15, 2005, from Cape Canaveral Air <br />Force Station (CCAFS), Fla.<br /><br /><br />This firm-fixed-price option is covered under the NASA Launch <br />Services Contract awarded by the agency on June 16, 2000. The <br />contract is with Delta Launch Services, Inc., a wholly owned <br />subsidiary of The Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, Calif.<br /><br /><br />The STEREO mission will provide revolutionary views of the <br />Sun-Earth system and contain two spacecraft. The first will <br />lead and the second will lag the Earth in its orbit. STEREO <br />is designed to trace the flow of energy and matter from the <br />sun to the Earth; reveal the true three-dimensional structure <br />of enormous eruptions of matter from the sun, called coronal <br />mass ejections; and show why they happen. STEREO is also <br />designed to provide unique alerts for Earth-directed solar <br />ejections.<br /><br /><br />NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program Office at <br />Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages STEREO. <br />The launch service and launch management are the <br />responsibility of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.<br /><br /><br />For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:<br /><br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov