Boeing [BA] recently said that NASA has awarded the company a $1.24 billion extension over a five-year period to the International Space Station (ISS) contract for sustaining engineering.
“Boeing’s knowledge of the International Space Station allows us to safely fly and operate the station to 2015, set the stage to enable ISS operations until 2020, and potentially extend operations through 2028,” said Joy Bryant, Boeing vice president and program manager for ISS. “We are partnering with NASA to ensure the health of the station’s many subsystems in order to pave the way for ground-breaking science and research aboard the laboratories on station in the years ahead.”
Under the extension, which begins Oct. 1, Boeing will provide sustaining engineering for hardware and software on the U.S. segment of the ISS and for common hardware and software available to the international partners.
The work also will include management of ISS subsystems, analytical integration and flight support, on-orbit engineering support, monitoring and trending system performance, and anomaly resolution, specialty engineering, and oversight of ongoing maintenance.
Boeing will perform the work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., as well as at Boeing sites in Houston, Huntsville, and Huntington Beach, Calif.
Besides sustaining engineering, the overall ISS contract also includes purchasing spare components and modifying current systems.
“We proved to NASA, through our technical and program management performance, that we are the right long-term partner for ongoing support to the International Space Station Program,” Bryant added.