SpaceX Receives IDR 1.13 Trillion Contract To Launch COSI Mission

Illustration of the COSI telescope (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA SpaceX, a space company owned by Elon Musk, has been selected as the launch service provider for the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) mission. The company was directly selected by NASA. Through its official broadcast, NASA revealed that the contract for the COSI mission is worth about 69 million US dollars (Rp1.13 trillion). The funding provided includes launch service and other costs related to its needs. It is planned that this wide-field gamma-ray telescope will be launched in August 2027. COSI will take off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. COSI is a collaboration mission between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Northrop Grumman, the Naval Research Laboratory, as well as the California University Space Science Laboratory in Berkeley and San Diego. The project is led by the main COSI researcher, namely the University of California in Berkeley. In addition to relying on SpaceX, launch service management for this mission is also supported by NASA's Launch Service Program at the Kennedy Space Center.

Meanwhile, its project development will be supported by NASA's Astrophysical Explorer Program at the Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA did not explain when the creation of this gamma-ray telescope was targeted for completion. This science instrument was developed to study various interesting phenomena in the Milky Way Galaxy and its surroundings. The telescope will also observe the creation and destruction of matter as well as anti-matter. COSI could be used to study the late stages of stellar life, investigate the origin of the Milky Way Galactic positron, search for the location of nucleosynthesis, conduct studies related to gamma-ray polarization, and much more.