This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington       Feb. 7, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0951)

Eileen M. Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

RELEASE: c03-004

NEUTRAL BUOYANCY LABORATORY, SPACE VEHICLE MOCKUP FACILITY 
CONTRACT AWARDED

     NASA today awarded a contract with a potential total value of 
$78.97 million to support activities at the Johnson Space Center's 
Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and Space Vehicle Mockup Facility to 
Raytheon Technical Services of Houston.  

The two-year base period for the contract is valued at $32.9 million 
with three one-year options valued at a total of  $46.07 million.

The NBL/SVMF Operations Contract will support the Extravehicular 
Activities (spacewalk) Office, operating, maintaining and providing 
sustaining engineering for these facilities. The Neutral Buoyancy 
Laboratory is used to support astronaut training for spacewalks using 
underwater mockups and pressurized suits to simulate the weightless
environment of space. Full-scale mockups in the Space Vehicle Mockup 
Facility are used to train astronauts for spaceflight.

The principle place of performance of work under this contract is at 
NASA's Johnson Space Center.

                                -end-
                                * * *
 - End of File -
================

---