NASA selects SpaceX to launch StarBurst gamma-ray telescope

What is the StarBurst mission?

NASA has awarded SpaceX a contract to launch its StarBurst astrophysics mission, a small satellite designed to hunt for the extreme cosmic explosions triggered by colliding neutron stars.

The spacecraft will lift off no earlier than 2028 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Rather than flying on a dedicated rocket, StarBurst will hitch a ride to low Earth orbit as a secondary payload on a Falcon 9 rocket through SpaceX’s Bandwagon rideshare programme.

How the launch is being funded

The agreement is structured as a firm-fixed-price task order under NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract. Managed by the agency's Launch Services Program Office at the Kennedy Space Center, VADR is a flexible, 10-year acquisition framework with a total budget cap of $1 billion.

The contract structure allows NASA to bypass the traditional, lengthy procurement cycles usually required for major missions. Instead, the agency can book slots on commercial flights to get smaller, lower-cost scientific payloads into space quickly and affordably.

The science behind the spacecraft

Weighing roughly 250 kilograms, StarBurst is part of NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program. The initiative is specifically designed to fund high-science-value investigations that can fit onto small spacecraft. StarBurst is slated to run for an initial one-year mission, though that could be extended if the hardware remains healthy.

Once in orbit, the satellite will hunt for short gamma-ray bursts. These are incredibly violent flashes of high-energy light that last less than two seconds, yet release more energy in that brief moment than our Sun will emit over its entire multi-billion-year lifespan. Scientists believe these bursts are generated when two neutron stars—the dense, collapsed cores of dead giant stars—spiral into one another and merge.

To capture these brief events, StarBurst will carry 12 cesium iodide scintillation detectors capable of spotting gamma-rays in the 30 to 1,000 kiloelectronvolt range. The payload is designed to view the entire portion of the sky not blocked by Earth. Crucially, the array will offer an effective collection area five times larger than the burst monitor currently operating on NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Why this matters for astronomy

Astrophysicists plan to coordinate StarBurst’s detections with gravitational-wave observatories on Earth. By combining the physical ripples in spacetime with the immediate high-energy light flash, researchers can study these cosmic cataclysms through multiple types of cosmic signals—a rapidly growing field known as multimessenger astronomy.

The resulting data could help solve persistent puzzles about how these mergers unfold, how they produce short gamma-ray bursts, and how heavy elements are forged in the debris.