NASA awarded ASO a similar task order in 2011 to provide pre-launch facilities and payload processing services for the TDRS-K spacecraft, which will launch from Cape Canaveral in December. These third-generation TDRS missions are the fourth and fifth satellites of NASA’s $12.5 million overall contract with ASO.

   “NASA has been successfully launching TDRS missions since 1983, however TDRS-K and -L will be the first TDRS missions processed at Astrotech,” ASO General Manager Don White said in a statement. “Processing also continues at ASO for NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) satellite, currently scheduled for an Aug. 23 launch.”