Orbital Sciences Corp. received a contract from NASA to build and launch the next satellite in the space agency’s New Millennium Program technology demonstration satellite, Orbital announced Nov. 28.

The Space Technology 8 satellite will be based on Orbital’s Microstar platform and will carry four payload experiments intended to improve NASA’s understanding of these technologies for future space missions. The demonstrations include a large flexible solar array, a 40-meter deployable boom, high radiation environment electronics and a thermal radiator experiment. Space Technology 8 is scheduled to launch in early 2009 on a Pegasus rocket.

The total value of the Space Technology 8 program is expected to exceed $50 million, Orbital said.