Mar 30 2011
From The Space Library
RELEASE: 11-092 NASA OFFERS SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION GROUPS CHANCE TO TALK TO SPACE
HOUSTON --NASA is offering opportunities for schools and educational groups to speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station to learn about the challenges and rewards of their work. Members of Expedition 29 and 30, the 29th and 30th crews to live on the station, will be available for question-and-answer sessions from September through March 2012. NASA astronauts Mike Fossum of McAllen, Texas, Dan Burbank of Yarmouthport, Mass., and Don Pettit of Silverton, Ore, will participate in the 20-minute question-and-answer sessions, known as in-flight downlinks. "These discussions are unique opportunities for students to learn first-hand from astronauts aboard the station what it is like to live and work in space," said Cindy McArthur, Teaching From Space (TFS) project manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It is inspiring to see science come alive for the students." The downlinks are modified videoconferences where participants see and hear crew live from space, but the crew only has audio connectivity. U.S. educational organizations such as museums, science centers, local school districts, national and regional education organizations and local, state and federal government agencies are eligible to participate. NASA provides this opportunity through TFS at no cost to the host organization and will work with the host institution to plan the downlink.
CONTRACT RELEASE: C11-015 NASA EXTENDS CONTRACT FOR SUPERCOMPUTING SUPPORT SERVICES
WASHINGTON -- NASA will exercise the third one-year option on a contract with Computer Sciences Corp. in Lanham, Md., to provide supercomputing support services at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. The option is valued at approximately $58.6 million. The option exercised on the cost-plus-award-fee contract begins April 1 and continues until March 31, 2012. The contract consists of a two-year base period, which began Aug. 1, 2007, and eight one-year priced options with a maximum value of approximately $597 million if all options are exercised. The company will continue to support supercomputing services provided by the agency's primary high performance computing facility operated by the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames. The facility serves as the supercomputing pathfinder for the agency and develops and operates some of the largest, most advanced and productive supercomputers in the world. The contract is structured so the company also may provide supercomputing services to the NASA Center for Climate Simulation facility at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and additional high performance computing support to other agency field centers as needed.
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