March 30, 2010

Sonja Alexander Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1761 sonja r alexander@nasa gov

Cynthia O'Carroll Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md 301-286-4647 cynthia m ocarroll@nasa gov

CONTRACT RELEASE: C10-018

NASA SELECTS RAPID III CONTRACTORS FOR SPACECRAFT SYSTEMS AND SERVICES

WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded contracts to eight aerospace firms for Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition III spacecraft and related services Each contractor has one or more core spacecraft offerings available under its Rapid III contract All fixed price indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity Rapid III contracts have a combined potential maximum value of $4 billion

The contractors selected for award of Rapid III contracts are: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp in Boulder, Colo , General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Gilbert, Ariz , Lockheed Martin Corporation in Denver, Orbital Sciences Corp in Dulles, Va , Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC in Englewood, Colo , Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp in Redondo Beach, Calif , Thales Alenia Space Italia in Rome, and Thales Alenia Space in France

Rapid III is a multiple-award contract that provides a rapid and flexible means for the government to acquire spacecraft and related services in support of science and technology needs The selected contractors are now eligible to compete for future spacecraft systems that NASA or other federal government agencies may require

The principle purpose of the Rapid III contract is to provide core spacecraft systems with any necessary modifications to meet specific mission needs The baseline scope of work includes design and development of the core spacecraft, testing, payload integration and test, launch operations support, and on-orbit checkout The principle work will be performed at the contractor's facility with additional work required at the government launch site

Additional opportunities to receive Rapid III contracts will be available in the future Qualified vendors may respond to periodic opportunities that will be announced during the five-year contract period

For more information regarding Rapid III spacecraft vendors and their core spacecraft offered, visit:

http://rsdo gsfc nasa gov

For information about other NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www nasa gov

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]