NASA has awarded an agencywide multiple award contract to Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Linde LLC of Murray Hill, New Jersey, consolidating the agency’s requirements for 10.2 million liters of liquid helium and 128.6 million cubic feet of gaseous helium to support operations at 13 NASA locations.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc. supply helium to the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This firm-fixed price contract begins Oct. 1 and has a maximum value of $28.8 million, with a potential performance period of five years.

Linde LLC will supply helium to NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas; Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Johnson Space Center in Houston; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California; Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California; White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

This firm-fixed price contract begins Oct. 1 and has a maximum value of $14.8 million, with a potential performance period of five years.

Helium is used throughout NASA as a cryogenic agent for cooling various materials and in precision welding applications, as well as lab use. Helium also is used as an inert purge gas for hydrogen systems and as a pressurizing agent for ground and flight fluid systems of space vehicles.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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