yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (05/26/90)
Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. May 25, 1990
(Phone: 202/453-8536) 4 p.m. EDT
Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 205/544-0034)
RELEASE: C90-r
NASA AWARDS ADVANCED SOLID ROCKET MOTOR FACILITIES CONTRACT
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., today
awarded an approximately 3-1/2-year contract to Lockheed Missiles
and Space Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., for design and construction of
facilities to produce and test the next-generation Space Shuttle
solid rocket motor.
The new Shuttle motor, designated the Advanced Solid Rocket
Motor (ASRM), will replace the Shuttle's current booster motors
in the mid-1990s.
The contract awarded today is a companion to one awarded to
Lockheed on May 11, covering design, development, test and
evaluation of the new rocket motor. Lockheed is subcontracting
the ASRM facilities work to RUST International, Birmingham, Ala.
The facilities contract is valued at $550 million, with
approximately $314 million of that designated for design and
construction of new buildings or modification of existing
structures, and approximately $236 million for purchase and
installation of tooling and equipment.
The facilities will be constructed principally at Yellow
Creek, a government-owned site in extreme northeastern
Mississippi, near the city of Iuka. In addition to the
construction of manufacturing facilities there, a static motor
test-firing stand will be added at NASA's Stennis Space Center
near Bay St. Louis, Miss.; nozzle production capability will be
added at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans; and
test installations at the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville will be expanded.
In April 1989, NASA announced the selection of the
contractor team for negotiations leading to award of the ASRM
prime contract. The principal members of the team are Lockheed,
the ASRM Division of Aerojet as the motor design and plant
operation subcontractor and RUST International as the facilities
subcontractor.
The construction effort will employ a peak work force of
approximately 1,000 to 1,500 people. More than 60 buildings at
Yellow Creek, Stennis and Michoud will be constructed,
refurbished or expanded, with Yellow Creek being the site of most
of this activity. Approximately two-thirds of the facilities at
Yellow Creek will be new buildings and the other third will be
modifications to existing buildings.
The Marshall Center has management responsibility for the
ASRM and will directly manage performance of the contract.