NASA Awards Launch Services for StarBurst Gamma-Ray Detector

First reported Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:37:09 GMT · Last updated Sat, 19 Sep 2026 13:23:58 GMT

Credit: NASA NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the agency’s StarBurst mission, a small satellite designed to investigate neutron star mergers and the origins of short gamma-ray bursts. StarBurst will launch aboard a Bandwagon rideshare mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida no earlier than 2028. The selection is a firm-fixed-price task order under NASA’s VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) launch services contract. This indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract allows NASA to acquire launch services during a 10-year ordering period, with a maximum total value of $1 billion across all contracts. The StarBurst mission is designed to observe the entire portion of the sky not blocked by Earth to search for brief, powerful explosions called gamma-ray bursts. The satellite will focus on detecting the initial high-energy emission from short gamma-ray bursts, which occur when dense stellar remnants called neutron stars merge. By combining StarBurst’s observations with gravitational-wave measurements and follow-up observations from other telescopes, researchers will study