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Weather-Changing Ocean Waves Charted from Space

Ed Campion                                April 12, 1996
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone:  202/358-1778)

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)

RELEASE:  96-73

SHUTTLE CONTRACTS TAKE FIRST STEP TOWARD CONSOLIDATION

     NASA and its major Space Shuttle contractors Friday took 
an important step toward consolidating Shuttle operations and 
processing work under a single prime contractor.

     Two Novation Agreements signed Friday that become 
effective this weekend designate United Space Alliance as the 
prime contractor for both Shuttle processing work currently 
performed by Lockheed Space Operations Company at the Kennedy 
Space Center (KSC), FL, and Shuttle operations work currently 
performed by Rockwell Space Operations Company at the Johnson 
Space Center (JSC), Houston, TX.  United Space Alliance (USA) 
is a joint venture announced last year by Rockwell International
Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. in preparation to compete for
NASA's request for a single Space Flight Operations Contract.

     In November 1995, NASA announced its decision to pursue a 
single Space Shuttle operations contract on a non-competitive 
basis with USA.  The novation activities are designed to ease 
the transition to a single contract. Together, Rockwell and 
Lockheed Martin already hold almost 70 percent of the dollar 
value of all Space Shuttle-related contracts.

     "This agreement basically constitutes a name change for 
contracts that will essentially remain intact for the near 
term," said Space Shuttle Program Manager Tommy Holloway.  
"However, it is significant in that it is the first phase of a 
transition to a single contract and it constitutes the first 
official contract between USA and NASA.  This allows us to get 
an early start on implementing a single Space Flight Operations 
Contract approach, and it supports our requirement that the 
transition to that contract is efficient and, above all, safe."

     The eventual consolidation of NASA's Space Flight 
Operations under a single contract is expected to reduce 
Shuttle costs by streamlining contractor operations and 
eliminating duplicative work while maintaining flight safety as 
the ultimate priority. NASA's involvement in the day-to-day 
operations of the Space Shuttle Program also is expected to 
decrease as greater accountability is shifted to the contractor.

     The two Novation Agreements signed Friday, one covering 
the Space Operations Contract, NAS9-18000, with Rockwell Space 
Operations Co. (RSOC), and another covering the Shuttle 
Processing Contract, NAS10-10900, with Lockheed Space 
Operations Co. (LSOC), will eventually consolidate all work 
from the two largest Shuttle operations contracts with USA. 
However, in the near future, no terms or conditions of the two 
contracts will change and USA will immediately subcontract the 
same work to RSOC and LSOC that they had previously performed 
under their respective contracts with NASA.

                      -end-