Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for a spacecraft and airborne system support services contract valued at approximately $95 million over a five-year period. The contract was won in a competitive process by Orbital's Technical Services Division (TSD), which is part of the company's Space Systems Group.

The NRL contract calls for Orbital technical personnel to conduct prototype spacecraft and airborne system and subsystem research, analysis and development, as well as integration, testing, and data processing and documentation activities. Orbital has previously supported numerous NRL aerospace programs, including Microwave Imager Sounder (MIS), Tactical Microsatellite Experiments (TacSat-1, TacSat-2, TacSat-4), Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI), Upper Stage, Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-5, MISSE-7), Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI), Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits (SUMO), Microelectronics and Photonics Test Bed (MPTB), WindSat, Interim Control Module (ICM), Low-Power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE), and Deep Space Program Science Experiment (DSPSE). "This new contract marks the fourth time over the past 23 years that NRL has selected Orbital as a supplier of technical support services," said Mr. John L. Pullen, Vice President of Orbital's Technical Services Division.