NASA Awards Space Station Cargo Mission Services Contract

NASA has awarded a contract with a potential value of $171 million to Lockheed Martin Corp. of Gaithersburg, Md., for support of International Space Station cargo mission services.

The contract will support planning, coordination, preparation and packing of standardized containers for cargo missions to the station by international partner and commercial cargo vehicles. Lockheed Martin will process flight crew equipment including clothing and personal hygiene items, housekeeping items, audio and video equipment, laptop computers, batteries and crew survival equipment. The contract also includes provisions to support similar services for future vehicles to the station.

A three-month phase-in period and the three-year basic period of the cost-plus-award-fee contract have a total estimated value of $85 million. The contract phase-in period begins Jan. 1, 2011. The basic period extends from April 1, 2011, through March 31, 2014. Exercising four one-year extension options worth a total of $86 million would bring the contract value to $171 million.

Work on the contract will be performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and other Texas locations. Major Texas subcontractors include Bastion Technologies and Dittmar Associates, both of Houston; GHG Corp. of Webster; LZ Technology in Alvin; Rothe Enterprises in San Antonio; and the University of Texas at El Paso.