yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (12/05/90)
Barbara Selby
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. December 3, 1990
(Phone: 703/557-5609)
Billie Deason
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 713/483-5111)
RELEASE: 90-157
NASA AWARDS COMMERCIAL MIDDECK AUGMENTATION MODULE CONTRACT
NASA has awarded a contract to SPACEHAB, Inc., Washington,
D.C., to provide the services of a commercial middeck
augmentation module (CMAN).
The firm-fixed-price contract covers a 5-year period,
November 1990 through December 1995. The total amount of the
negotiated contract is $184,236,000. At the time of contract
award, NASA will fund $7,959,000.
The first SPACEHAB module is slated for flight aboard the
Space Shuttle in December 1992. The leased module will ride in
the payload bay when carried, be accessible through the air lock
and add the volume equivalent of about 50 middeck lockers to the
orbiters' capacity.
Under the contract, SPACEHAB will provide for the physical
and operational integration of the module and the experiments,
power, cooling, data management and crew training spread over six
flights which will occur at intervals of about 6 months.
In support of private sector research initiatives, NASA is
leasing two-thirds of the available module volume, over a six-
flight profile. This volume will be used for flight research
opportunities for NASA's Centers for the Commercial Development
of Space and for Joint Endeavor Agreements. SPACEHAB will market
to commercial users the remaining one-third of the module space.
The SPACEHAB lease will be managed by the CMAM Project
Office in the New Initiatives Office at Johnson Space Center,
Houston, on behalf of the NASA Headquarters Office of Commercial
Programs. SPACEHAB submitted the only proposal received in
response to NASA's request for proposals.