Approved last week, the deal will award the California-based private space contractor, SpaceX, with federal dollars in exchange for use of one of its Falcon 9 Full Thrust rockets.
The mission, named Surface Water and Ocean Topography, will launch in April 2021 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, according to the Orlando Business Journal.
One launch of the partially-reusable rocket is estimated at $62 million with a landing record of 6 out of 8, with one destroyed during pre-test.
The deal comes on the heels of a failed September Falcon 9 launch in Cape Canaveral that destroyed a Facebook satellite, leaving CEO Mark Zuckerberg “deeply disappointed.”
Many are hoping this contract and mission lead to further SpaceX investments in Florida.
Port Canaveral will already be voting in December on a lease agreement, postponed from Nov. 16, for SpaceX to occupy a building meant to refurbish Falcon 9s.
This article appears in Nov 23-29, 2016.