Boeing

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] in Huntsville, Ala., was recently awarded a $2.6 million contract as part of NASA's Alternate Access to Station (AAS) project to expand options for delivering supplies to the International Space Station.

Boeing is one of four companies selected to study commercial alternatives to supply the space station. During the 12-month study, each competitor will provide NASA with cargo vehicle concepts for rendezvous and docking with the station, and the technology requirements needed to accomplish an automated approach by NASA and industry. If NASA selects the Boeing AAS concept, the potential value of the program could lead to a large amount of follow-on work at the Boeing Huntsville facility.

"The AAS contract is the type of new business that we are aggressively seeking for our Huntsville site," said Gina DeSimone, senior site director for Boeing in Huntsville. "The program is an excellent fit with the other Space Launch Initiative work that we do here."

AAS is part of the Space Launch Initiative (SLI), which is a five-year NASA-funded program to develop the technologies for a next generation reusable launch vehicle. Boeing Phantom Works, based in St. Louis, manages the SLI contract work and is responsible for studying airframe, vehicle subsystems, operations and propulsion concepts. Boeing's Canoga Park, Calif., unit is responsible for developing an advanced reusable rocket engine that will boost safety and reliability for future flight crews.

"This win is a perfect example of the ability of Boeing in Huntsville to put the right team together to provide solutions to very complex problems," said Kevin Neifert, director of Boeing Next Generation Launch Systems.