Thu, Dec 27, 2007
NASA has signed a $465.7 million contract modification with
Lockheed Martin, New Orleans, for space shuttle external tanks. The
modification aligns and extends all activities associated with the
production contract for the tanks to the launch schedule for the
space shuttle's retirement date of 2010.
The modification supports the agency's priorities of safely
flying the space shuttle, completing construction of the
International Space Station and NASA's long-term plan to return
astronauts to the moon and beyond.
The cost plus award fee/incentive fee contract will conclude
Sept. 30, 2010, and brings the total value of the contract, awarded
October 2000, to $2.94 billion. The contract calls for the delivery
of 17 external tanks to NASA.
Work under the contract will be performed at NASA's Michoud
Assembly Facility in New Orleans, NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala. and NASA's Kennedy Space Center,
Fla.
Lockheed Martin builds, assembles and tests the space shuttle
external tanks for NASA at the Michoud facility. The external tank
holds the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen for the shuttle's
three main engines. It is the largest single component of the space
shuttle and the only part of the shuttle that is not reused. At 154
feet tall, the gigantic rust-colored tank is taller than a 15-story
building and as wide as a silo, with a diameter of about 27.5 feet.
During launch, the tank acts as the structural backbone for the
shuttle orbiter and the solid rocket boosters attached to it.
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