Jun 22 2012
From The Space Library
CONTRACT RELEASE: C12-024 NASA EXTENDS CONTRACT FOR MISSION, CREW OPERATIONS SUPPORT
WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a contract extension to United Space Alliance of Houston to provide mission and flight crew operations support for the International Space Station and future human space exploration. The $17.4 million extension of the Integrated Mission Operations Contract covers ground-based human spaceflight operations capability development and execution. This contract includes support for mission planning and preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real-time mission execution. The initial period of extension runs from Oct. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2013. There is a $17.8 million option to extend the contract for another year effective from Oct. 1, 2013, through Sept. 30, 2014. The total potential value of the cost-plus-award-fee contract would be $35 million, if the option is exercised. This contract extends the original contract, which was in effect from November 2008 through September 2012.
CONTRACT RELEASE: C12-025 NASA SELECTS HEADQUARTERS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SERVICES CONTRACT
WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected the Headquarters Information Technology Support Services (HITSS) contract. Digital Management, Inc. of Bethesda, Md. will provide support for the NASA Headquarters' Office of Headquarters Operations, Information Technology and Communications Division in Washington, D.C. This is a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract, with the ability to issue indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity task orders on a cost-plus-incentive fee or cost-plus-fixed fee basis. The period of performance includes one base year with four 1-year options not to exceed five years. The maximum total value of the contract, including options, is approximately $177 million. Under this contract, Digital Management will provide information technology support services to NASA Headquarters. Additional services include planning and management of information systems; life-cycle support for applications and information systems; operation of the NASA Headquarters Data Center; systems engineering and integration services; IT security; technology innovation and infusion; and customer support. This competitive procurement was set aside for certified 8(a) businesses.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-119 STUDENTS GATHER IN PHILADELPHIA TO SPEAK WITH ASTRONAUTS IN SPACE
WASHINGTON -- Elementary, middle and high school students will have the opportunity to speak with Expedition 31 flight engineers Don Pettit, Joseph Acaba and AndrT Kuipers aboard the International Space Station at 10:35 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, June 26. The event will take place at Philadelphia University in Philadelphia. Media representatives are invited to attend. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and include video of the space station residents. The event will be hosted by Destination Imagination, a non-profit organization that provides education programs for students to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem solving. Pettit, Kuipers, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Konenenko arrived at the space station on Dec. 23, 2011. Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin completed the six-person crew on May 17. This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching From Space education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-120 ASTRONAUT REX WALHEIM AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS ON NASA'S ORION
HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Rex Walheim will be available for live satellite interviews in front of a full-scale model of the Orion spacecraft from 6 - 7:30 a.m. CDT, Thursday, June 28. Interviews will originate at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The first space-bound Orion capsule is set to arrive at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida next week. Walheim is the Astronaut Office's main liaison with the Orion Program. He provides input from an astronaut's perspective on Orion's design and testing process. Walheim was one of four NASA astronauts to fly on the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, in July 2011. Orion will be used to carry out the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in 2014. At Kennedy, Orion's heat shield will be installed and the capsule will undergo final assembly and checkout operations. EFT-1 will be the first spaceflight of NASA's next-generation crew vehicle and send the capsule farther into space than any human spacecraft since Apollo 17's return from the moon. Walheim is a native of San Carlos, Calif., and a 1984 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He received a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in May 1984, eventually serving as an instructor at the United States Air Force Test Pilot School before NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1996. He received a master of science degree from the University of Houston in 1989.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-118 NASA INVITES MEDIA TO ORION CREW MODULE ARRIVAL AT KENNEDY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Media representatives are invited to attend an event marking the arrival of NASA's first space-bound Orion spacecraft at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event will take place at 10 a.m. EDT, Monday, July 2, at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building and be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website. The Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space. Speakers include: -- Sen. Bill Nelson -- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver -- NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer -- NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Dan Dumbacher -- NASA Space Launch System Spacecraft and Payload Integration Manager David Beaman -- NASA Ground Systems Development and Operations Program Manager Pepper Phillips NASA participants will discuss progress made to-date on final assembly and integration of the spacecraft, which will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed mission planned for 2014. This test will see Orion travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. In advance of its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the Orion production team will apply heat shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems to the spacecraft. Additionally, NASA will host an interactive session from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with agency leaders and Orion Program managers to answer questions from followers of NASA's social media accounts. Followers on Twitter can ask a question during the event using the hashtag #askNASA. On NASA Facebook and Google+, a comment thread will open for questions the morning of the event. Journalists must arrive at Kennedy's Press Site by 8:30 a.m., Monday, July 2, for transportation to the Operations and Checkout Building for a tour and the ceremony. Badges for the event can be picked up at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405. In 2017, Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system. Likewise, NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, managed at Kennedy, is preparing to process and launch the next-generation vehicles and spacecraft designed to achieve NASA's goals for space exploration. The Orion crew module pressure vessel was built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston manages the Orion Program. SLS is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
