NASA News: NASA Awards Financial and Business Management Services Contract
HOUSTON -- NASA has selected Wichita Tribal Enterprises, LLC, ofHouston to provide financial and business management services for the
Office of the Chief Financial Officer and other entities at the
agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The new contract calls for a three-year base period and two one-year
options. The maximum potential value of the contract is $45 million.
Under the contract, Wichita Tribal Enterprises will provide program
and resources management and process improvement services. The work
will be performed at Johnson and other locations, as required.
The three-year base period of performance for the contract is
scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2012, and continue through Dec. 31, 2014,
with two one-year options available. The contract is an
indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with
cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price task orders.
Significant subcontractors on the contract are Stinger Ghaffarian
Technologies of Greenbelt, Md., and Barrios Technologies of Houston.
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
---
Coverage Set For Next Soyuz Crew Launch And Docking
HOUSTON -- Fresh off the arrival of three new crew members at theInternational Space Station, the next trio of residents is set to
launch to the outpost Dec. 21. NASA Television will cover prelaunch
activities, launch and docking to the orbital laboratory during the
next several weeks.
Expedition 30 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg
Kononenko and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers are
scheduled to launch at 7:16 a.m. CST on Dec. 21 (7:16 p.m. local
time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz
TMA-03M spacecraft to begin a two-day trip to the station. They are
set to dock to the station's Rassvet module at approximately 9:20
a.m. on Dec. 23.
Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will join Expedition 30 Commander Dan
Burbank of NASA and Russian Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and
Anatoly Ivanishin, who have been on the station since Nov. 16.
Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will remain on the station until May as
members of the Expedition 31 crew.
NASA TV's scheduled coverage includes (all times Central):
Thursday, Dec. 1
2 p.m. -- Video file of Soyuz TMA-03M crew news conference in Star
City, Russia, and visit to Red Square in Moscow
Thursday, Dec. 8
11 a.m. -- Video file from Star City of crew departure for Baikonur
Friday, Dec. 16
11 a.m. -- Video file of crew activities in Baikonur
Monday, Dec. 19
11 a.m. -- Video file of rocket rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur
Tuesday, Dec. 20
11 a.m. -- Video file of final prelaunch crew news conference and
Russian State Commission meeting in Baikonur
Wednesday, Dec. 21
5:45 a.m. -- Video file feed of the crew prelaunch activities in
Baikonur
6:30 a.m. -- Launch coverage begins (launch scheduled at 7:16 a.m.)
9:30 a.m. -- Video file of prelaunch, launch and post-launch
interviews
Friday, Dec. 23
8:45 a.m. -- Docking coverage begins (docking scheduled at 9:20 a.m.),
followed by the post-docking news conference from Mission Control in
Korolev, Russia
11:45 a.m. -- Hatch opening and welcoming ceremony begins (hatch
opening scheduled at 12:20 p.m.)
2 p.m. -- Video file docking, hatch opening and welcoming ceremony
For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about the International Space Station and its
crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
---
Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum Available for Interviews
HOUSTON -- Just back from his command of the International SpaceStation, NASA astronaut Mike Fossum will be available for live
satellite interviews from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 1.
Fossum completed 167 days in space as a member of the Expedition 28
and 29 crews during his third space flight. Altogether, Fossum has
spent 194 days in space and performed seven spacewalks. He ranks
seventh on the all-time list for cumulative spacewalking time.
Fossum and his crewmates, Expedition 29 Flight Engineers Sergei Volkov
of the Russian Space Agency and Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency, returned to Earth in their Soyuz
TMA-02M spacecraft at 8:26 p.m. on Nov. 21. The three were aboard the
station during the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, which
delivered supplies and equipment to the outpost. The crew members
spent the majority of their time aboard the complex performing
science experiments and routine maintenance.
Fossum is a native of McAllen, Texas, and a graduate of Texas A&M
University in College Station. He received master's degrees from the
Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio and the University of
Houston-Clear Lake.
To arrange an interview, news media representatives must contact Karen
Svetaka at 281-483-8684 or Karen.A.Svetaka@nasa.gov by 2 p.m. on
Wednesday, Nov. 30.
The interviews will be preceded by a feed of video b-roll material of
Fossum and his mission at 5:30 a.m.
Fossum and the b-roll feed will appear on NASA's Live Interview Media
Outlet channel, which is located on satellite SES-2, transponder 9C,
located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 MHz based on a
standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity. FED is ¾, data rate is
6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.
For NASA Television streaming video, downlink and scheduling
information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Fossum provided updates throughout his mission through social media at:
http://go.nasa.gov/oZgHtl
and
http://twitter.com/astro_aggie
For Fossum's complete biography, visit:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Source:
