Boeing will provide engineering support services, resources, and personnel for activities aboard the ISS and manage many of the station’s systems.
Work will be done at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre in Houston; the John F. Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida; and Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as other locations around the world. The contract is valued at about $225 million annually.
John Mulholland, Boeing vice president and program manager for the International Space Station, said, "As the International Space Station marks its 20th year of human habitation, Boeing continues to enhance the utility and livability of the orbiting lab we built for NASA decades ago."
==
==
NASA selected Boeing as the ISS prime contractor in 1993. Throughout development, assembly, habitation and daily operations aboard ISS, Boeing has partnered closely with NASA to help the agency and its international partners safely host astronauts and cosmonauts for months at a time.
The astronauts conduct microgravity experiments that help treat disease, increase food production, and manufacture technology impossible to produce on Earth’s surface.
Boeing people have contributed to human spaceflight for more than 50 years, including the Mercury and Gemini capsules; development of the Saturn V rocket; Apollo command and service modules; and space shuttle fleet, in addition to the ISS.
Boeing is building on this legacy with its CST-100 Starliner, a spacecraft developed in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
PROMOTED CONTENT
"We thank NASA for their confidence in our team and the opportunity to support the agency’s vital work in spaceflight and deep-space exploration for the benefit of all humankind," Mulholland added.
The company is also building the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System, a rocket powerful enough to lift astronauts and spacecraft to destinations beyond Earth orbit, such as lunar orbit and Mars.
The ISS is a permanently crewed on-orbit laboratory that enables scientific research supporting innovation on Earth and future deep space exploration.
From design to launch, 15 countries collaborated to assemble the world's only permanently crewed orbital facility, which can house a crew of six and 150 ongoing experiments annually across an array of disciplines.
The ISS represents a global effort to expand our knowledge and improve life on Earth while testing technology that will extend our reach to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Boeing officially turned over the US on-orbit segment of the ISS to NASA on 5 March 2010, and continues to provide key engineering support services and capability enhancements, as well as processing for laboratory experiment racks.
Boeing’s assessments have shown it is possible to sustain the life of the station’s primary structural hardware at least through 2030.
Receive the latest developments and updates on Australia’s space industry direct to your inbox. Subscribe today to Space Connect here.
