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Air Force awards EELV funding contract for Delta 4 AIR FORCE NEWS RELEASE Posted: November 19, 2006 The U.S. Air Force announces the award of an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Launch Capability (ELC) contract to The Boeing Company (Integrated Defense Systems, Huntington Beach, CA). This Boeing ELC contract is for a 16-month period and provides the infrastructure required for launch capability to support four launches per year, with one of those from the west coast. Launch capability includes prime and supplier critical skills retention; engineering; program management; launch and range site activities; and mission integration. Since previously awarded mission prices included this same scope of work, those contracts will be adjusted to remove any duplication in scope. This contract is part of the EELV Buy 3 strategy to enable a flexible contract structure in which the Government aims to share an appropriate level of risk with the launch service providers, preserve the space launch industrial base, and stabilize the launch operations tempo. The revised EELV acquisition strategy focusing on the U.S. Government and National Security Space as the primary user of EELV and absolute Mission Success as the primary goal. According to the Launch and Range Systems Wing chief engineer, Col. Joseph F Boyle, "We now have the basic contract structure in place to provide the government's required level of mission assurance with both Boeing and Lockheed Martin and we will have the assured access to space needed for national security." The new acquisition strategy incorporates two separate contracts for each launch provider: ELC, and a Launch Service contract (ELS). ELC contracts are a standard government negotiated procurement and thus fundamentally different from the previous commercial type contracts. The new contracts require traditional cost reporting from the contractors, and will comply with Cost Accounting Standards and the DoD Earned Value Management Systems policy. The Boeing ELC contract was awarded today. A pre-contract cost letter was signed that recognizes costs as of June 1, 2006, upon the successful resolution of the DCAA audit of Boeing's proposal. Thus the period of performance on the Boeing ELC contract is June 1, 2006 through Sept. 30, 2007. The Boeing ELC contract value is $674 million for the 16-month period of performance. The Lockheed Martin ELC contract was awarded on Feb. 28, 2006 for $815 million and covers a 24-month period of performance from Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2007. The Launch Services portion of Buy 3 contract strategy or ELS, covers the specific launches. The Government will award ELS contracts on a per mission basis, awarded at least two years in advance of the anticipated launch. We are currently in negotiations for award of the first ELS contract. The EELV program is a world-class space launch system that has enjoyed unprecedented success, 15 successes for 15 missions, supporting military, intelligence, and civil mission requirements previously serviced by Titan 2, Delta 2, Atlas 2, and Titan 4. With the Nation's critical dependence on space launch, EELV meets National Security Space needs, National Space Transportation Policy requirements for assured access, and Congressional mandates. |
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The space shuttle Discovery is hoisted high into the Vehicle Assembly Building and mated with its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters.
Space shuttle Discovery makes an evening move October 31 from its processing hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building for mating with an external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparation for the STS-116 mission.
The objectives of the just-approved final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission are detailed and the anticipated science from the new instruments to be installed are detailed in this briefing from Goddard Space Flight Center.
The crew for the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission will be led by Scott Altman, with pilot Greg C. Johnson, robot arm operator Megan McArthur and spacewalkers Andrew Feustel, Mike Good, John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino. The astronauts meet the press in this news briefing from Johnson Space Center.
The twin STEREO space observatories designed to change the way we view the sun launch from Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket.
A progress report on development of the Orion crew exploration spacecraft and the Ares launch vehicle is given during this briefing held October 18 at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
Some of the initial pictures and data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since the craft entered its mapping orbit around the Red Planet are presented in this news briefing held October 16 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.