Aug 28 2015
From The Space Library
Release C15-033 NASA Awards Contract for Construction of New Mission Launch Command Center at Wallops Flight Facility
NASA has awarded a contract to Harkins Contracting Inc. of Salisbury, Maryland, for the construction of a new Mission Launch Command Center (MLCC) at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.
The new 14,174 square-foot facility will serve as the hub for interfacing with and controlling rockets, their payloads and associated launch pad support systems during flight operations at Wallops.
“The Wallops launch range mission set has seen steady growth, transformation and diversification over the years,” said Bill Wrobel, Wallops Flight Facility director. “This new MLCC is a critical modernization project that will meet the needs of our operations today and take us well into the future.”
Recent operations underscoring the need for the new command center include commercial cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station, Department of Defense missions, and NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), the first lunar mission to launch from Wallops.
This award is a firm-fixed price contract with a value of $5.6 million.
The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver MLCC is a single-story facility that will be built on the main base of Wallops. The scope of the work includes asphalt and concrete paving, construction of storm water structures, extension of communications and electrical ducts, as well as connecting the facility to existing water, electric and sanitary systems.
The building will consist of a steel frame with concrete masonry unit exterior construction, a modified bitumen roof, glass and metal storefront and curtain wall systems. Additional work under this contract includes the installation of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, electrical systems, and interior architectural finishes, as well as verifying all construction requirements have been met.
The launch command center currently in use was designed in the 1950s to accommodate discrete, quick-turnaround missions characteristic of the Wallops Range mission set at the time, which included Project Mercury tests and suborbital rocket flights.
“The current command center has served us well over the years, but doesn’t have the capacity to meet the needs and requirements for advancing our nation’s goals and objectives in space,” said Wrobel.
Today, launch missions from Wallops embrace the facility’s traditional role in testing new technologies along with enabling research and scientific investigations, in addition to taking on larger-scale operations using small- and medium-class solid- and liquid-fueled rockets.
As NASA’s only launch range, the Wallops Range provides the operational environment required to ensure safe and successful flight operations for rockets, missiles, aircraft, unmanned aerial systems, and a variety of other mission types essential to the scientific, military and commercial use of space.
NASA Awards First Round Prizes in Cube Quest Challenge
The first milestone of NASA’s Cube Quest Challenge has been reached, as teams competed in the first of four ground tournaments in August. The five highest-scoring competitors will each be awarded $20,000.
Cube Quest is a competition to build flight-qualified, small satellites capable of advanced communication and propulsion near and beyond the moon. Teams that achieve top performance at high-speed data communications, navigation and survival after achieving lunar orbit or a minimum long-distance range from Earth compete for an unprecedented $5.5 million prize purse in NASA’s first ever in-space challenge. Cube Quest is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program, which accelerates technology by engaging non-traditional sources in competition.
The ground tournaments are a series of ground-based checkpoints that allow the judges to review the teams’ progress and to incentivize advancement with intermediate awards.
At Ground Tournament 1, (GT), 13 teams presented their spacecraft and mission designs to a panel of judges from NASA, industry and academia. Judges assessed all the team submissions — engineering designs, plans, analysis and models — as well as presentations by each team. Judges award points ranging from 0 to 5, 5 being exceeds expectations or analysis indicates excellent likelihood of achievement.
The five top-scoring teams for GT-1 are:
- Team Miles of Tampa, Florida
- MIT KitCube of Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Cislunar Explorers of Ithaca, New York
- Novel Engineering of Cocoa Beach, Florida
- Ragnarok Industries of Wilmington, Delaware
“We are excited to have completed the first of four ground tournaments in the Cube Quest challenge,” said Monsi Roman, program manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges. “Cubesats are a technology with commercial space potential. For 10 years, we have supported challenges that research the innovative solutions needed for NASA’s future exploration goals, and this event is one of many steps toward our journey to Mars and beyond.”
GT-2 is scheduled for February 2016. Following completion of the ground tournaments, Cube Quest will continue with the Deep Space and Lunar Derbies. The Deep Space Derby will focus on deep space communications using small spacecraft, and the Lunar Derby will focus on propulsion for small spacecraft and near-Earth communications.
The winning teams will be formally recognized Wednesday, Sept. 9, during a media telecom, and there will be an opportunity for media to interact with teams and challenge personnel.
NASA's Centennial Challenges Program is part of the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate. The program is managed at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the Cube Quest Challenge is administered by the NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California.
