March 7 News Items

Boeing to Host Small-Business Supplier Forum for NASA Work (Source: Boeing)
Boeing will host a small-business supplier forum March 19 to attract the best of industry as the company prepares to compete for NASA's Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC). "We are especially interested in those suppliers who are currently supporting NASA's missions operations. This forum creates an opportunity to speak with representatives of small businesses that have innovative and cost-effective solutions and want to do business with Boeing," said a Boeing official. The FDOC is administered by NASA's Johnson Space Center. It includes development, sustaining engineering, operations and maintenance of the training, flight planning, reconfiguration and control-center facilities for human spaceflight programs. The contract also includes developing and maintaining the software applications used in these facilities.

NASA Wary of Relying on Russia as Lone Carrier of Astronauts to Station (Source: Washington Post)
For NASA, the launch of the ESA Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) highlights a stark reality: In 2 1/2 years, just as the station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which roughly $100 billion is being invested. The three space shuttles will be retired by then, because of their high cost and questionable safety, and NASA will have nothing ready to replace them until 2015 at the earliest.

For five years or more, the United States will be dependent on the technology of others to reach the station, which American taxpayers largely paid for. To complicate things further, the only nation now capable of flying humans to the station is Russia, giving it a strong bargaining position to decide what it wants to charge for the flights at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are becoming increasingly testy.

Florida Aerospace Microgravity Training Program Accepting Applications (Source: SpaceTEC)
The Florida Aerospace Microgravity Training Program is now accepting applications through March 28 for seventy-five currently employed Florida aerospace engineers, technicians and scientists, statewide. Chosen applicants will gain first-hand knowledge of spaceflight working conditions under a new state-sponsored initiative aimed at preparing the workforce for the next-generation of commercial and government space programs. The Microgravity Training Program will include a mix of classroom, web-based, and in-flight training to introduce workers to the challenges of developing and operating systems in the weightless environment of space. Participants will be selected based on eligibility criteria along with the information contained in the application. The program is sponsored by Workforce Florida, Inc. and the Brevard Workforce Development Board, Inc. (BWDB). To obtain an application, visit http://www.spacetec.org.