Mon, Jan 18, 2010
Removing Requirements Drops Price By $13.2 Million
This week NASA issued a follow-up Request for Information
(RFI) for ideas from education institutions, science museums and
other appropriate organizations about their ability to purchase and
publicly display orbiters after the conclusion of the Space Shuttle
Program. The final Space Shuttle missions are currently
planned for 2010.
NASA's original RFI in December 2008 noted that a potential
shuttle recipient would have to pay an estimated $42 million for
the cost of "safeing" an orbiter, preparing it for display and
ferrying it to a US destination airport. NASA updated the
requirements and tasks needed to make each orbiter safe for
disposition so that the purchaser will not pay for these
processes.
Except for cost and scheduled delivery changes, the 2008 and
2010 RFIs are virtually the same. In this follow-up RFI, NASA
revised the estimated display preparation and ferrying costs to
$28.8 million.
The schedule for transferring the orbiters may be six months
earlier than originally anticipated. NASA also desires to make
selections a year before receipt of the orbiters, so recipient
organizations will have sufficient time to conduct any fundraising
activities necessary to support preparation and ferry costs.
RFI responses are due to NASA by 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb.
19, 2010. Organizations that responded to the original RFI do not
need to resubmit a full response, but should clarify their
positions with respect to these changes.
NASA is already planning to transfer space shuttle Discovery to
the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Shuttle orbiters
Endeavour and Atlantis will be available for placement no earlier
than July, 2011.
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