NASA Awards Optical Telescope Assembly for WFIRST Contract to Harris Corp

NASA has awarded a contract to Harris Corporation of Rochester, New York, for the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) for the agency’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission.

The total value of this cost-plus-award-fee contract is approximately $195.9 million. The period of performance runs from Nov. 30 through Dec. 1, 2025, NASA said in a statement Saturday.

Harris Corporation will provide the personnel, services, materials, equipment and facilities necessary to build, refurbish or modify the OTA, as required, to meet WFIRST performance requirements. The efforts include fabricating, as necessary, aligning, testing, verifying and delivering the telescope to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the press release stated.

The contractor also will provide post-delivery support for both the observatory integration and test program, as well as for in-orbit observatory checkout and commissioning.

The work will be performed at the contractor’s facility in Rochester, New York, and at Goddard.