NASA picked SpaceX to fly StarBurst on a shared Falcon 9 Bandwagon ride, no earlier than 2028. The craft is meant to watch merging neutron stars and the first bright flash of short gamma-ray bursts. The flight is a fixed-price VADR order run from Kennedy. The pad named is Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.
NASA said it picked SpaceX to fly StarBurst on a shared Falcon 9 Bandwagon ride, no earlier than 2028. The award is a fixed-price VADR order. Kennedy's launch-services office runs that contract. The retained card is that services award.[1]
StarBurst is built to watch merging neutron stars and where short gamma-ray bursts start. It will search the sky Earth does not block for that first high-energy flash. NASA wrote that those bursts happen when neutron stars merge. This slot does not add a science paper announcing a new detection. The 2028 floor is NASA counting its own award.[1]
The release names Space Launch Complex 40 on the Cape Canaveral Space Force site in Florida. This slot's retained card is the services award, not a science paper announcing a new burst detection. Complex 40 is a Cape Canaveral pad already used for Falcon 9 rides. The retained services award is the only pool card. No second publisher sits on this slot. The 2028 floor stays on that same award.[1]
