For Release: June 28, 1996

Marshall Space Flight Center News Release 96-052 (6-28-96)

RELEASE: 96-52

NASA AWARDS CONTRACT OPTION TO CONTINUE EINSTEIN RELATIVITY EXPERIMENT DEVELOPMENT

NASA has exercised an option to continue a contract with Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. for development of an experiment to test two areas of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The cost-reimbursement option, valued at $75,159,734 covers the period July 1, 1996 through Dec. 31, 1997.

The experiment, called the Gravity Probe B Science mission, is designed to determine the extent to which space and time are "warped" and "dragged" by the presence of the Earth and its rotation, by measuring small changes in the spin of four orbiting gyroscopes. Circling the earth at 400 miles altitude, the experiment’s extremely high precision gyroscopes will provide a virtually perfect space-time reference system.

The Gravity Probe B Mission, managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is planned for launch aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. in October 2000.