National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland/Wallops Island, Virginia
July 9, 1999
Safety – Our Number One Value
NASA Selects Two Contractors for First Phase of Next Generation Space Telescope Observatory
Goddard awarded this week two $14 million firm fixed price contracts for trade studies necessary to develop a observatory concept and develop essential technologies relating to the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST).
Selected for the contracts were TRW’s Space and Electronic Group of Redondo Beach, Calif./Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Co. of Sunnyvale, Calif. The two NGST phase one contracts awarded will last 26 months. The contracts will contain options for two consecutive three-month extensions.
Selected contractors will be expected to provide a detailed design concept and a technology development and infusion plan that will demonstrate how the contractor will ensure that the technology needed for its design will work and can be built given the NGST cost constraints. The technology plan also will demonstrate what steps have been taken to reduce technical risk.
Towards the end of the phase one contracts, a source evaluation board will begin the process of selecting a single design for the telescope. Although the main components of the designs will be complete, there will be details to consider, so the contractors will be able to continue working while the phase two source selection is underway.
Contractors not selected for phase one are still invited to compete for phase two, with the understanding that their design work and other phase one requirements will not be funded by NASA.
The contracts are part of an innovative procurement process that strives to identify, develop and integrate new technology into a program under strict cost constraints. Developing the best procurement strategy for the NGST mission requires taking all phases of the mission into account, from concept and technology development through construction, launch and operations.
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Historic Glenn Mission, SOHO Make Major Advance on Solar Mystery |  |
Coordinated satellite observations taken during John Glenn's return to space make a major advance toward explaining a long-standing solar mystery. The high-speed solar wind, a stream of electrically charged particles, races from the Sun twice as fast as expected. The new discovery indicates that the fast solar wind achieves unexpectedly high speeds by "surfing" waves in the Sun's atmosphere, accelerating to speeds of up to 500 miles per second on its way to space.
The observations were made using NASA's Spartan 201 spacecraft, deployed from the space shuttle during the STS - 95 mission, and the joint ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft.
For further details check out the following URL: http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/spacesci/swind/swind.htm
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ODIN Help Desk Moved Attention all Goddard ODIN Customers!! Intellisource has moved their help desk to Glenn Research Center, in Cleveland, Ohio. This help desk change is in response to problems experienced using the commercial help desk in Dallas, Texas. You can expect significant improvement in service including: current customer data, faster response, minimal chance of lost or misdirected tickets, and NASA knowledgeable personnel. This help desk will begin supporting Goddard, Greenbelt on July 12. The new number is 1-877-iis-4you (1-877-447-4968).
Back to top| NGST Mirror Systems Demonstrator Status
Update One of Goddard's two Next Generation Space Telescope Mirror Systems Demonstrator (NMSD) mirror contractors recently received the National Small Business Subcontractor of the Year award, having been nominated by Lockheed Martin. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has named composite optics, incorporated (COI) of San Diego, Calif., as the 1999 National Small Business Subcontractor of the Year. Five hundred sixty small businesses across the country were nominated for the award. COI was a finalist for the national honor after winning the SBA's subcontractor award for Region IX. |
These two Hubble Space Telescope images were released to the public in the past week.
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| The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. | This stellar swarm is M80 (NGC 6093), one of the densest of the 147 known globular star clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. Located about 28,000 light-years from Earth, M80 contains hundreds of thousands of stars, all held together by their mutual gravitational attraction. |
As part of the Center wide awareness campaign for Goddard’s upcoming ISO Registration Audit, a badge was designed for each Goddard civil service employee to use as a quick reference to the "Quality Policy Statement" and documenting processes and procedures. Every Goddard civil service employees should receive their badge by July 9. If you do not received yours by that date, please contact Darlene Ahalt on extension on 6-8101 or Rebecca Elliott on 6-8956.
Goddard’s ISO registration audit is quickly approaching. The audit dates for Greenbelt and Wallops are Aug. 23 through Sept. 1. For more information about ISO 9000, check out: http://arioch.gsfc.nasa.gov/iso9000/index.htm
Press Releases and other interesting sites from the past week:
Mission Success Starts With Safety
If you would like to make comments or ask questions concerning the content of the Goddard News for this week please address your email comment to: James.Sahli.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
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