Boeing Team to Develop Revolutionary Spacecraft Power System for DARPA

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., July 1, 2009 . An industry team led by The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for work on Phase 2 of the Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed (FAST) program. The $15.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is currently funded to $13.8 million.

DARPA.s FAST program aims to develop a new, ultra-lightweight High Power Generation System (HPGS) that can generate up to 175 kilowatts . more power than is currently available to the International Space Station. When combined with electric propulsion, FAST will form the foundation for future self-deployed, high-mobility spacecraft to perform ultra-high-power communications, space radar, satellite transfer and servicing missions.

Boeing Phantom Works of Huntington Beach is leading the effort with support from Boeing Network and Space Systems, El Segundo, Calif. The Phase 2 work will include designing, fabricating and integrating test articles, performing a series of component-level evaluations and running two full-scale system tests.

.Our team is pleased to partner with DARPA in developing this powerful new technology,. said Tom Kessler, FAST program manager, Boeing Advanced Network and Space Systems. .FAST offers significant cost and performance benefits to our commercial, civil and national security customers, including new high-power applications to provide a cost-effective means for spacecraft to travel to the outer solar system..

 NASA extends spacesuit contract

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) --

The U.S. space agency says it has approved an $86 million, one-year spacesuit contract option.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the extension of the cost-plus-award-fee contract extension awarded Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International of Windsor Locks, Conn., is for spacesuits used on the space shuttles and the International Space Station.

NASA Adds $60,000 in Prizes to the 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition

 The Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) of Rice University is pleased to announce the addition of three awards of $20,000 each sponsored by NASA to be presented at the 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition.

The three new NASA Earth/Space Engineering Innovation Prizes will be awarded by NASA for the best business plans that represent an engineering technology which has applications to both the NASA space program and to Earth-based activities. These awards will be in addition to the $20,000 NASA Earth/Space Life Sciences Innovation Award, for a total of $80,000 in cash to be awarded by NASA.

.For decades, the NASA space program has been a source of technology advances which provide benefits not only in space, but also on Earth. This award continues that tradition,. said Brad Burke, managing director, Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Kennedy Space Center Chooses SRA for Constellation Launch Control Systems

Alabama Aircraft Announces New Contract for Subsidiary Space Vector Corporation

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct 16, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Alabama Aircraft Industries, Inc announced today that its subsidiary, Space Vector Corporation, has been awarded a contract for the development, qualification, testing and production of GPS Metric Tracking Units for United Launch Alliance (ULA) of Centennial, Colorado, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that operates space launch systems using the Atlas V, Delta II and Delta IV. It is estimated that the contract will be worth approximately $4.9 million over the next two years.

NASA Notice of Centennial Challenges Lunar Lander Challenge

Notice of Centennial Challenges Lunar Lander Challenge