Mar 31 2016

From The Space Library

CONTRACT RELEASE C16-008 NASA Awards Spacecraft Avionics Development Contract

NASA has selected The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to provide development and operations support for the avionics software suite that will guide the agency's next generation of human rated spacecraft on missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

The $38.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee/firm-fixed-price contract known as the Advanced Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) and Avionics Technology Development and Analysis II Contract begins Friday, April 1, and will continue through March 2019. The contract includes provisions for two additional option years that would extend the contracted work until March 2021.

The contract will support the work of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The contract provides support services that include: research, design analysis, development simulation, integration, testing operation and certification for advanced space systems. The avionics and other software developed under this contract will be incorporated onto the International Space Station and Orion spacecraft. The work will also aid future NASA science and exploration missions for crewed and robotic spacecraft.

The majority of the work will take place at contractor facilities in Texas, near Johnson. Services also may be required at other NASA centers, contractor or subcontractor locations, or vendor facilities as requirements warrant.