Date: May 5th 2007

May 4, 2007

Melissa Mathews/Beth Dickey Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1272/2087

John Bluck Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif 650-604-5026

CONTRACT RELEASE: C07-23

NASA AWARDS HEAT SHIELD MATERIAL CONTRACTS FOR ORION SPACECRAFT

WASHINGTON - NASA has selected The Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, Calif , and Textron Systems, Wilmington, Mass , to develop alternate heat shield materials for the Orion crew exploration spacecraft

The two contracts for Alternate Block 2 Thermal Protection System (TPS) Materials and Heat Shield Systems Advanced Development will support development and testing of three alternative heat shield materials, designs and manufacturing processes Under the contracts, the companies will work to ensure the technologies are mature enough to become viable backups if there are difficulties with the primary material

NASA's Constellation Program is developing Orion as America's primary vehicle for future human space exploration Orion will carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2015, with a goal of landing astronauts on the moon no later than 2020 The Orion TPS Advanced Development Project, led by Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif , was established to develop a heat shield to protect Orion during its return from low-Earth orbit or the moon

In September 2006, Boeing was awarded a contract to develop the primary heat shield material, Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA), manufactured by its subcontractor, Fiber Materials, Inc , Biddeford, Maine The alternate materials will be developed fully only if the primary material does not perform to Orion Project specifications NASA will assess and evaluate all of the Alternate Block 2 TPS materials through initial testing and select the most promising of the materials for further development, if needed

The Alternate Block 2 contract awarded to Boeing has an approximate value of $10 million, including all options, and calls for Boeing to perform early investigation of a proprietary material, the Boeing Phenolic Ablator (BPA)

The contract awarded to Textron has a value of approximately $24 million, including all options, and calls for Textron Systems to perform early investigation of two proprietary material options, Avcoat (used on Apollo) and Dual Layer

Each contract has a 16-month performance period from May 4, 2007, until Aug 31, 2008

For more information about the Orion heat shield, see:

http://www nasa gov/centers/ames/research/humaninspace/cevheatshield html

For information about Orion, visit:

http://www nasa gov/orion

For information about NASA and agency programs, please visit:

http://www nasa gov

-end-

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