Space Station Replacement Battery Contract Awarded
Allard Beutel
NASA has awarded a contract to The Boeing Company, Houston, for the procurement of 40 International Space Station replacement battery units. The contract facilitates the fabrication, assembly, testing and delivery of these battery units in advance for the replacement of on-orbit batteries.
Each of four power element truss structures on the Space Station, P6, P4, S4, and S6, is designed with 12 batteries that store power generated by solar arrays. The batteries, which are one meter wide, 94 centimeters long and 48 centimeters high, are designed to last for about six-and-a-half years and can be replaced while in orbit. Boeing is presently under contract to deliver replacement batteries for the P6 truss. This new contract requires the purchase of replacement batteries for the P4, S4 and S6 elements, with an additional four batteries as spares.
The firm-fixed-price contract, valued at $145 million, covers work from Feb. 20, 2003, through Sept. 30, 2010. A Boeing subcontractor, Space Systems/Loral, in Palo Alto, Calif., will perform the fabrication and assembly work.
