Boeing Hopes To Land NASA Johnson Space Center Work

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has submitted a proposal to NASA for the Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC). This is a four-year contract under which Boeing plans to work in collaboration with NASA to bring innovative, affordable solutions to the agency’s nexgen mission control center and other facilities at Johnson Space Center located in Houston. Boeing plans to draw extensively on its experience on space, military, and commercial programs to improve the efficiency of NASA’s facilities operations. NASA’s Johnson Space Center Mission Operations Directorate will manage FDOC, which consolidates a portion of the current Space Program Operations and Mission Support Operations contracts. FDOC includes development, sustaining engineering, operations and maintenance of the training, flight-planning, reconfiguration and control-center facilities for human spaceflight programs. The contract also includes developing and maintaining the software applications used in these facilities. NASA is scheduled to select a contractor in November, with work starting in January 2009. The four-year contract will have two one-year options that could extend the agreement to 2014.