NASA has awarded Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (SELVS) contracts to Orbital Sciences (OSC) and Coleman Research for up to 16 flights from Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg and Wallops Island from 2000 to 2003 with a maximum potential value of each contract being $400 million. OSC's SELVS launches will be made by Pegasus XL and Taurus boosters, while the Coleman LK-0 is a US-made derivative of Israel's Shavit, representing the country's first foray into the commercial market in the USA. The first SELVS launch will be of the High Energy Solar Spectrographic Imager in July 2000. Lockheed Martin's Athena booster has missed out on the SELVS work.
Source: Flight International
