NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., has extended the period of performance of the Payload Ground Operations Contract (PGOC) held for the last 15 years by The Boeing Company at Kennedy Space Center. The contract expires Dec. 31, 2001.

This cost-plus-award-fee extension through March 2002 (with one-month options until July 2002) is valued at $59.5 million and brings the total contract value to almost $1.9 billion.

The extension provides for coverage of payload ground support, test, integration and de-integration for space shuttle and expendable launch vehicle payloads. This action ensures uninterrupted program support through the PGOC and bridges the gap in performance between Dec. 31, 2001, and the awards of the follow-on contracts to PGOC -- the Checkout, Assembly and Payload Processing Services (CAPPS) contract and the Expendable Launch Vehicle Integrated Services (ELVIS) contract.

The original PGOC contract was initiated in January 1987 with McDonnell Douglas Space and Defense Systems.