NASA awards technical support contract

WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says it's awarded Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. a contract for Constellation Program technical support services.

The Constellation project involves the development of spacecraft to travel beyond low Earth orbit. The Constellation fleet includes the Orion crew vehicle, the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles and the Altair human lunar lander.

The five-year contract has a base two-year value of $17.6 million, with a total potential value of $49.5 million if three one-year extension options are exercised.

The Houston firm is to provide the resources to conduct tasks in support of the Constellation Program systems engineering, integration, testing and evaluation.

The two-year base period of the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract and firm-fixed price contract begins Aug. 1. Phase-in of the contract begins July 1.