Date: September 16th 2006

Sep 15, 2006

Michael Braukus/Beth Dickey Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1979/2087

Kelly Humphries Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Michael Mewhinney Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif 650-604-3937 CONTRACT RELEASE: C06-046

NASA AWARDS THERMAL PROTECTION CONTRACT FOR ORION SPACECRAFT

NASA has selected The Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, Calif , to support the design and development of a lunar direct return-capable heat shield for the Orion crew exploration vehicle The hybrid firm fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract has a 16-month period of performance, with a maximum value of approximately $14 million, including all priced options

The heat shield will protect the spacecraft and crew during atmospheric reentry following missions to the moon or the International Space Station The heat shield attached at the base of the spacecraft will reject the majority of the heat generated during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere Returning from missions to the station, Orion will re-enter at speeds similar to those experienced by the space shuttle - 16,700 miles an hour Returning from the moon, Orion will reenter the atmosphere at speeds of about 25,000 miles an hour and experience heating about five times as extreme as missions returning from the station

NASA's Constellation Program is developing Orion as NASA's primary vehicle for future human space exploration Orion will carry astronauts to the station by 2014, with a goal of landing astronauts on the moon no later than 2020

The present Phase II contract with Boeing is a continuation of an earlier Phase I NASA effort that evaluated phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA), as well as four other candidate materials using extensive testing and analysis Boeing has been selected to provide PICA, a proprietary material manufactured by its subcontractor, Fiber Materials Inc of Biddeford, Maine, for continued testing and evaluation

Boeing's deliverables for this contract include:

Samples of thermal protection system materials for thermal, structural and environmental testing and analysis
A preliminary heat shield design and detailed heat shield implementation plan using PICA
A full-scale 16 5-foot (5-meter) heat shield manufacturing demonstration unit
Comprehensive trade studies targeted toward increasing the technology readiness of a PICA-based heat shield
A material properties database and thermal response model for PICA

NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif , is the agency's lead center for thermal protection systems and will use its thermal, structural and environmental facilities to conduct extensive testing and evaluation of the PICA deliverables Ames will assess the material performance and its risks and suitability for use as the Orion heat shield NASA will work with Boeing to provide key validation and verification functions, as well as contributing toward the development and delivery of the overall preliminary heat shield design

For more information about the heat shield, visit the Orion section of the NASA portal:

http://www nasa gov/orion

-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: BULK_EMAIL

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

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/[list]/

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:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/list/[list]

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