Orbital Sciences (News - Alert) Corporation recently announced that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for a spacecraft and airborne system support services contract valued at approximately $95 million over a five-year period.

Orbital’s Technical Services Division won the contract in a competitive process. TSD is part of the company’s Space Systems Group.

The NRL contract calls for Orbital technical personnel to conduct prototype spacecraft airborne system and subsystem research, analysis and development, integration, testing, data processing and documentation.

Orbital has previously supported numerous NRL aerospace programs, including Microwave Imager Sounder (MIS), Tactical Microsatellite Experiments (TacSat-1, TacSat-2, TacSat-4), Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI), Upper Stage, Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-5, MISSE-7), Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI), Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits (SUMO), Microelectronics and Photonics Test Bed (MPTB), WindSat, Interim Control Module (ICM), Low-Power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE), and Deep Space Program Science Experiment (DSPSE).

John L. Pullen, vice president of Orbital’s Technical Services Division said that this new contract marks the fourth time over the past 23 years that NRL has chosen Orbital as a supplier of technical support services. John said that NRL has been a valued customer and they appreciate NRL’s continued confidence in their team.

Orbital’s TSD, based in Greenbelt, Md., provides space-related engineering, manufacturing and management support to U.S. Government agencies, normally supplying engineers, scientists, technicians and other professionals to work side-by-side with a customer’s technical staff. Other major TSD customers include various NASA centers such as Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center and Johnson Space Center, the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (News - Alert).

Orbital develops and manufactures small- and medium-class rockets and space systems for commercial, military and civil government customers. The company’s primary products are satellites and launch vehicles, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and planetary exploration spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense missions; human-rated space systems for Earth-orbit, lunar and other missions; ground- and air-launched rockets that deliver satellites into orbit; and missile defense systems that are used as interceptor and target vehicles. Orbital also provides satellite subsystems and space-related technical services to U.S. Government agencies and laboratories. For more information about Orbital, visit the website http://www.orbital.com.