LOCKHEED WINS 10-YEAR NASA CONTRACT; CONTRACTOR PICKED TO RUN AGENCY'S SPACE OPERATIONS.Byline: Bloomberg NewsLockheed Martin Corp., the world's No. 2 defense and aerospace company, won a $3.44 billion, 10-year contract to run NASA's space operations, beating rival Boeing Co. The initial contract is valued at $1.9 billion over five years, with options for an additional five years totaling $1.54 billion. The contract runs from October 1998 to December 2008. Lockheed Martin will manage all of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's data collection, measurement and communications operations supporting its earth-orbiting satellites, planetary exploration and human space flight. The space agency is trying to cut costs and eliminate redundancies as part of NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. Administrator Daniel Goldin's goal to hand over mission-support operations to private industry. ``This contract is projected to save the American taxpayers approximately $1.4 billion over 10 years,'' Goldin said in a statement. Allied Signal Inc., as a member of the Lockheed Martin team, said it was awarded a $1 billion contract. The Lockheed Martin win didn't come as a surprise because the Bethesda, Md. company was seen as the incumbent, one analyst said. Lockheed Martin is one of NASA's largest contractors, working with Boeing to maintain the shuttle fleet. It already operates about 80 percent of NASA's ground work under a number of separate contracts. ``It still demonstrates their capability as the leading end-to-end space company,'' said Jeff Abramson, senior associate at DFI See Direct foreign investment. International Inc., a Washington-based consulting firm. The contract, which originally was expected to be awarded in June or July, was delayed after a NASA panel extended the companies' bid so the committee could gather more information. As part of the consolidation effort, as many as 50 percent of the NASA employees now working in space operations could lose their jobs during the next 10 years, said Jay Honeycutt, president of Lockheed Martin Space Operations Co. Work on the contract will be performed at five NASA locations including Johnson Space Center in Houston; Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Md.; Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the original home of NASA, is a lead center for propulsion, Space Shuttle propulsion, Shuttle external fuel tank, crew training and payloads, International Space Station (ISS) design and construction, for computers, networks, and in Huntsville, Ala.; Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) U.S. launch site for manned space missions. [U.S. Hist.: WB, So:562] See : Astronautics in Florida; and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena. The Lockheed Martin team included Allied Signal, Computer Sciences Corp., Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc., GTE GTE General Telephone & Electronics GTE Génie Thermique et Énergie (French) GTE Gas Turbine Engine GTE Global Tropospheric Experiment GTE Geothermal Energy GTE Gas Turbine Efficiency plc (Sweden & USA) Corp., GHG GHG Greenhouse Gas GHG Governor's Horse Guard (various locations) Corp., Cimarron, and more than 40 other subcontractors. CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena will be one of the NASA sites that will work under a Lockheed Martin contract. |
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