WASHINGTON — A Florida-based nonprofit has been picked to manage non-NASA science on the U.S. side of the international space station (ISS).
NASA picked the Space Florida-backed Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) for the job, awarding it $15 million in annual funding under a cooperative agreement with the space agency. NASA announced its choice July 13.
CASIS is a nonprofit group formed to compete for the role of ISS National Lab Managing Entity. The group will manage the logistics of sending non-NASA research payloads to the space station. The group is also tasked with soliciting proposals for station-bound experiments from industry, academia and other nonprofit groups.
CASIS will be based at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said.
According to a June letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden from Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R), the CASIS team consists of Space Florida, Boeing, Bionetics Corp. of Yorktown, Va., Dynamac Corp. of Rockville, Md., and others.
NASA put out its call for proposals in February.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) praised NASA’s choice, characterizing the selection as a way to bring jobs in a part of Florida hard hit by space shuttle-related layoffs.
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