NASA awards spacesuit contract

HOUSTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says it's awarded a contract to Oceaneering International Inc. for the design, development and production of a new spacesuit system.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the Houston company will produce a spacesuit that will protect astronauts during Constellation Program voyages to the International Space Station and, by 2020, the surface of the moon.

"The award of the spacesuit contract completes the spaceflight hardware requirements for the Constellation Program's first human flight in 2015," said Jeff Hanley, Constellation program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Contracts for the Orion crew capsule and the Ares I rocket were awarded during the past two years.

The cost-plus-award-fee spacesuit contract includes a basic performance period from June 2008 to September 2014 that has a value of $183.8 million, with options totaling more than approximately $506 million.

The subcontractors are Air-Lock Inc. of Milford, Conn.; the David Clark Co. of Worcester, Mass.; Cimarron Software Services Inc. of Houston; the Harris Corporation of Palm Bay, Fla.; Honeywell International Inc. of Glendale, Ariz.; the Paragon Space Development Corp. of Tucson; and United Space Alliance of Houston.