NASA Extends International Space Station Contract

WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a five-year, $1.24 billion contract
extension to The Boeing Co. to continue engineering support of the
International Space Station through Sept. 30, 2015.

Work under the contract extension is intended to maintain the station
at peak performance levels so the full value of the unique research
laboratory is available to NASA, its international partners, other
U.S. government agencies and private companies. NASA officially
accepted the space station from Boeing at the conclusion of a March
2010 Acceptance Review Board that verified the delivery, assembly,
integration and activation of all hardware and software required by
the contract. The acceptance signified the transition from assembly
of the station to utilization.

This action extends the space station's Vehicle Sustaining Engineering
Contract, which was originally awarded in January 1995 and most
recently extended in 2008. The extension brings the total contract
value through the end of fiscal year 2015 to $16.2 billion.

Work under the contract extension will include sustaining engineering
of station hardware and software, and support of U.S. hardware and
software provided to international partners and participants in the
station program. The extension also includes end-to-end subsystem
management for the majority of station systems, including materials
and processes, electrical, electronic, and electromechanical parts,
environments and electromagnetic effects.

NASA and its international partner agencies are in the final stages of
analyzing the ability to sustain station operations through 2020 and
awaiting formal confirmation of this goal by the governments of
participating countries. This contract extension also includes
assessment of the feasibility of extending the life of the primary
structural hardware that was installed in orbit through the end of 2028.

The work will be performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston,
Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., and at other domestic and international locations.

For more information about the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Source: NASA