Astrium Gains European Space Agency Contract For ISS Work

The European Space Agency (ESA) transferred work on operating and using the European share of the International Space Station (ISS) to Astrium, a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., as prime industrial contractor.

ESA and Astrium concluded a service agreement for a fixed price of Euro278 million (US$441.9 million) covering the period from this year 2008 up to and including 2010. The agreement combines all activities involved in operating the European contributions to the ISS, from mission control, engineering tasks and the provision of supplies, to communications with the ground station.

As the prime contractor, Astrium will ensure that European sections of the ISS function smoothly and that high-quality research can be performed.

The contract is based on service provided by Astrium since 2004 to exploit the European part of the ISS. There are plans to prolong the service agreement for the entire service life of the ISS, which runs at least to 2015, and likely much longer.

Astrium leads a European consortium of some 40 partnering enterprises from the ten European countries involved in the ISS. The most important partners include Thales Alenia Space, Turin, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with the Columbus Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich.

Services in the contract are divided into work packages. They comprise astronaut training, mission control and preparation, engineering for technical integration, particularly in the case of extensions for new experiments and research facilities, the ground segment including communications, and logistics and maintenance.

The Columbus space laboratory is Europe’s main contribution to the ISS.

Experiments in a variety of scientific disciplines are to be carried out there under zero-gravity conditions. The focus will be placed on physics, materials science, biology and medicine. Many of these experiments, such as the measurement of solar spectral irradiance, will actually take place on the outside of the Columbus module. In order for the space laboratory to fulfill its intended purpose to the full, it is important that the research projects, which are perfectly attuned to one another, should be carried out smoothly.

In its capacity as prime contractor for the Columbus space laboratory and its payload and for the Automated Transfer Vehicle ATV, Astrium has made significant contributions to the ISS, the company stated.

Lockheed Gains $42 Million Space Station Cargo Delivery Pact

NASA gave Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] a $42 million, one-year contract extension to provide integration services for cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc. in Houston has held the ISS cargo mission contract since January 2004. The one-year extension will bring the total value of the contract to $338 million.

The contract provides cargo packing for delivery to and from the space station, consisting of pressurized and unpressurized science and logistics carriers, assembly hardware and crew support.

It also involves determining the most efficient way to pack the cargo, verifying the adequacy of the integrated carriers, packing the pressurized cargo into sub-carriers and returning the cargo to the providers once it returns to Earth. The contract also provides sustaining engineering for NASA carriers.

The extension begins Oct. 1, and is the first of two such options provided for in the original contract.

Major subcontractors include United Space Alliance LLC, a joint venture of Lockheed and The Boeing Co. [BA], and Bastion Technologies Inc., both in Houston. As well, subcontractors include Command Technologies Inc. in Warrenton, Va.; Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. in Huntsville, Ala., and EADS Astrium Space Transportation, Bremen, Germany. The work will be performed at Johnson Space Center, Houston, and at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

General Dynamics Gets $9 Million Satellites Encryption And Telemetry Work

The Air force gave General Dynamics Corp. [GD] a $9.2 million contract for satellites encryption work.

General Dynamics C4 Systems will continue developing, qualifying and certifying a National Security Agency-approved encryption module that will be used to secure telemetry, tracking and control of Department of Defense satellites.

The option modifies a contract initially awarded to General Dynamics in July 2006, bringing the total contract value to $19.3 million.

Boeing Bids On Johnson Space Center Facilities Work

The Boeing Co. [BA] bid on a NASA facilities contract for Johnson Space Center, Houston.

Boeing submitted a proposal to NASA for the Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC), a four-year contract under which Boeing would bring innovative, affordable solutions to the next-generation mission control center and other facilities at Johnson.

Boeing plans to draw extensively on its experience on space, military and commercial programs to improve efficiency of NASA facilities operations.

Johnson Space Center Mission Operations Directorate will manage FDOC, which consolidates a portion of the current space program operations and mission support operations contracts.

FDOC includes development, sustaining engineering, operations and maintenance of the training, flight-planning, reconfiguration and control-center facilities for human spaceflight programs. The contract also includes developing and maintaining the software applications used in these facilities.

NASA is scheduled to select a contractor in November, with work starting in January. The four-year contract will have two one-year options that could extend the agreement to 2014.

Boeing comes to the FDOC contract with extensive control-center experience on the Iridium constellation of satellites, the company noted. Iridium is a group of 66 satellites, with multiple backups, that provides mobile voice- and data-communications capability anywhere in the world.