The Boeing Company and Honeywell entered
into an agreement for ongoing and future International Space Station (ISS)
work relating to avionics, systems, and software.
“Boeing and Honeywell have had a strong collaborative history during the
development of the ISS,” said Brewster Shaw, Boeing vice president and general
manager, International Space Station.
“We will use our complementary
technical expertise to pursue competitive and cost effective approaches to
satisfy NASA and its global partners on future ISS needs.”
Boeing, as NASA’s prime contractor for ISS, is well positioned to continue
its role for sustaining and upgrading the ISS vehicle avionics subsystem, and
in ISS Operations & Utilization.
Honeywell currently provides command and data handling and custom
mechanism subsystems, software and engineering support, life support and
safety systems, thermal controls, power and data transfer assemblies, guidance
and navigation controls and berthing mechanisms to Boeing for ISS.
“We are pleased to partner with Boeing on future ISS projects,” said Jay
Lovelace, vice president and location manager for Honeywell Satellite Systems.
“The agreement solidifies our partnership and brings us closer together making
it possible to secure a stronger Space Station program.”
The agreement remains in effect through 2003.
ISS is the largest international space venture ever undertaken and a joint
effort of 16 countries.
ISS is orbiting overhead — visible from Earth in the
night sky.
The first two modules, Zarya and Unity, were launched and
assembled in orbit in late 1998.
When fully assembled in 2005, it will house
a crew of seven — working in 46,000 cubic feet of pressured volume spread
across six laboratories, two habitation modules, and two logistics modules.
The next scheduled ISS assembly launch is Zvezda, the Russian Service
Module, aboard a Russian Proton rocket.
Zvezda is currently at Baikonur
undergoing pre-launch test and check-out.
The first astronaut crew,
Expedition One, will be brought to ISS later this year for their three-month
stay.
The U.S. Laboratory will be launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in
early 2001.