Lockheed Martin Space Operations

More than 150 representatives from over
40 domestic and international high-tech companies attended a daylong briefing
hosted by Lockheed Martin’s Consolidated Space Operations Contract’s Office of
Commercialization yesterday in Houston.

The purpose of the briefing was to seek industry response to a series of
procurement opportunities to commercialize NASA’s Ground Network Telemetry,
Tracking and Commanding (TT&C) and Data Communications Systems. Specifically,
Lockheed Martin released a draft version of an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite
Quantity (IDIQ) contract opportunity to acquire commercial satellite TT&C
services; to commercialize NASA’s existing TT&C assets and infrastructure; and
to utilize existing and future Wide Area Network (WAN) circuit capacity.

“This conference is the first in a series of briefings to industry planned
to attract innovation from the commercial sector.
Companies in the area of
TT&C services, domestic and internationally, have tremendous growth potential
and have begun to get the attention and investment of the capital markets.
This affords customers like NASA the opportunity to derive cost savings from a
very competitive market,” says Dan Heimerdinger, Ph.D., Director, Office of
Commercialization.

The goals of CSOC’s commercialization are to provide the best space
operations services at the lowest cost to NASA and other users and to move
space operations services into the hands of commercial providers.

NASA has embarked upon commercialization to replace asset ownership with
acquisition of the latest technology from the private sector. Through NASA’s
Consolidated Space Operations Contract, Lockheed Martin has been entrusted
with the stewardship of these assets.
As NASA’s business partner, Lockheed
Martin is seeking the best proposals that achieve asset acquisitions by third
parties combined with commercial technology enhancements and updates.

Tuesday’s briefing was just the latest in a series of actions Lockheed
Martin has already taken to accomplish those goals. For example, by
outsourcing NASA’s Wide Area Network, the company has successfully converted
the space agency’s internal communications infrastructure from a government-
owned, government-maintained and government-managed network to a fixed-price,
commercial service. This has resulted in significant cost savings to NASA.

Also through commercial outsourcing, Lockheed Martin is providing hardware
maintenance for mission support facilities, as well as mission support to
Triana, ground support for the Earth Polar Ground Network (EPGN) and separate
EPGN back-up support through a commercially owned ground station in Norway.

For more information on commercialization opportunities with NASA, visit
http://www.commercializespace.com.

Headquartered in Houston, Lockheed Martin Space Operations, a business
unit of Lockheed Martin Technology Services, is a high-tech engineering and
science services firm employing more than 4,500 engineers, scientists and
support personnel. Their services include managing the Consolidated Space
Operations Contract; software engineering and hardware development for the
Space Shuttle and International Space Station; mission and payload operations
and integration; and human life sciences research.