NASA’s plan to establish an International Space Station
Research Institute (ISSRI) has been postponed. A draft
Statement of Work was released in Sept. 5, 2003, and a draft
Request for Proposal was scheduled for release in winter 2004.
The decision was made following the President’s Jan. 14
announcement of a new vision for NASA’s space exploration
program. A feature of the new plan is a re-focused research
effort on the International Space Station to better understand
and overcome the effects of human space flight on astronaut
health, increasing the safety of future space missions. NASA
will implement, as its priority for the International Space
Station, research that specifically enables this human
exploration vision.
“Given a highly focused research agenda for the Station, NASA
has reassessed its plan for an International Space Station
Research Institute, and determined that the scope of and need
for an ISSRI needs to be reevaluated,” said Mary Kicza, NASA’s
Associate Administrator, Office of Biological and Physical
Research.
NASA will delay the procurement of the ISSRI for at least one
year while the agency reconsiders establishing a new institute
and potentially updating its plan. The agency may also choose
to terminate the ISSRI procurement efforts.
NASA had planned to contract a non-government organization to
establish an institute to manage Space Station research. The
objective of the planned institute was to promote research
planning, coordination, and advocacy for maximum use of the
Station by U.S. science, technology and commercial communities.
“This delay will give us the opportunity to determine the best
approach to achieving the more focused research agenda for the
Space Station, and to decide the extent to which it makes sense
to procure an International Space Station Research Institute to
further that agenda, ” Kicza said.
For information about space research, visit:
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/
