Nov 28 2011
From The Space Library
NASA Awards Financial and Business Management Services Contract
HOUSTON - NASA has selected Wichita Tribal Enterprises, LLC, of Houston to provide financial and business management services for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and other entities at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The new contract calls for a three-year base period and two one-year options. The maximum potential value of the contract is $45 million.
Under the contract, Wichita Tribal Enterprises will provide program and resources management and process improvement services. The work will be performed at Johnson and other locations, as required.
The three-year base period of performance for the contract is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2012, and continue through Dec. 31, 2014, with two one-year options available. The contract is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price task orders.
Significant subcontractors on the contract are Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies of Greenbelt, Md., and Barrios Technologies of Houston.
Coverage Set For Next Soyuz Crew Launch And Docking
HOUSTON - Fresh off the arrival of three new crew members at the International Space Station, the next trio of residents is set to launch to the outpost Dec. 21. NASA Television will cover prelaunch activities, launch and docking to the orbital laboratory during the next several weeks.
Expedition 30 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers are scheduled to launch at 7:16 a.m. CST on Dec. 21 (7:16 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft to begin a two-day trip to the station. They are set to dock to the station's Rassvet module at approximately 9:20 a.m. on Dec. 23.
Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will join Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank of NASA and Russian Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, who have been on the station since Nov. 16. Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will remain on the station until May as members of the Expedition 31 crew.
Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum Available for Interviews
HOUSTON - Just back from his command of the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Mike Fossum will be available for live satellite interviews from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 1.
Fossum completed 167 days in space as a member of the Expedition 28 and 29 crews during his third space flight. Altogether, Fossum has spent 194 days in space and performed seven spacewalks. He ranks seventh on the all-time list for cumulative spacewalking time.
Fossum and his crewmates, Expedition 29 Flight Engineers Sergei Volkov of the Russian Space Agency and Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, returned to Earth in their Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft at 8:26 p.m. on Nov. 21. The three were aboard the station during the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, which delivered supplies and equipment to the outpost. The crew members spent the majority of their time aboard the complex performing science experiments and routine maintenance.
Fossum is a native of McAllen, Texas, and a graduate of Texas A&M University in College Station. He received master's degrees from the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio and the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
