Finalising a contest started earlier this year in March the USA’s Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded a US$72 million contract to Advanced Space LLC. Advanced Space is currently operating the NASA CAPSTONE mission in Lunar orbit.
This most recent award announced on 10 November is for a new mission called Oracle. It was initially known as the Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS). It is intended to provide space situational awareness and object detection services from beyond GEO orbit. To enable this it is planned to operate around the Earth-Moon Lagrange point 1.
A visualisation of the Oracle mission. Courtesy of AFRL
Advanced Space is leading a team which is made up of General Atomics – Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS), which will supply the spacecraft, and Leidos, providing the optical payload.
