WASHINGTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., won a $135 million contract to build NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2), which among other observations will monitor polar ice levels that scientists believe to be an indicator of climate change, the space agency announced Aug. 31.

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Dan Leone is the NASA reporter for SpaceNews, where he also covers other civilian-run U.S. government space programs and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. He joined SpaceNews in 2011.Dan earned a bachelor's degree in public communications...