NASA Selects Contractor for First Prometheus Mission to Jupiter.(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., selected Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif., as the contractor for co-designing the proposed Prometheus Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft. The contract award is for approximately $400 million, covering work through mid-2008.

The Prometheus JIMO mission is is part ofan ambitious mission to orbit and explore three planet-sized moons, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa, of Jupiter. The moons may have vast oceans beneath their icy surfaces. A nuclear reactor would enable the mission, which would …