NASA extends the space station contract

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency has given a two-year, $650 million contract extension to the Boeing Co. for engineering support of the International Space Station.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration extended the "On-Orbit Segment Acceptance and Vehicle Sustaining Engineering contract" awarded in January 1995 to Sept. 30, 2010.

NASA said work performed under the contract extension will include "completion of delivery and on-orbit acceptance of the U.S. segment of the station, sustaining engineering of station hardware and software, support of U.S. hardware and software provided to international partners and participants in the station program, and end-to-end subsystem management for the majority of station systems."

The contract work will be performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and at other domestic and international locations.