The contract effectively places TRW in the "finals" of the competition slated to select NASA's GLAST mission prime contractor in spring 2002. Scheduled for launch in 2005, GLAST will study celestial phenomena that produce gamma rays, the most energetic form of radiation.

"This contract builds on TRW's previous GLAST studies and our experience as the spacecraft producer and integrator of some of NASA's most successful science missions, including Compton GRO and more recently, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory," said Fred Ricker, vice president and general manager, TRW Space & Laser Programs Division.

"We're committed to making GLAST equally successful, both as a science mission and as a validation of NASA's Rapid II Spacecraft Catalog approach."

Rapid II Catalog is a procurement practice designed to enable rapid development and production of spacecraft using standardized spacecraft products.

Under terms of the contract, TRW will work with NASA to define the best ways to modify TRW spacecraft in the catalog to accommodate the interface requirements of the GLAST instruments and the overall requirements of the GLAST mission. TRW expects to use its T-300 line of spacecraft as a baseline for the GLAST mission.

GLAST will carry a 3,000-kilogram science payload comprising the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), provided by Stanford University, and the GLAST Burst Monitor, provided by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

The instruments will study cosmic phenomena such as gamma ray bursts, neutron stars, supernova remnants and distant galaxies fueled by super massive black holes at their centers. The LAT instrument is expected to be about 30 times more sensitive to gamma ray events than the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope used aboard Compton GRO.

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