Contact: Jerry Berg
Media Relations Department
(256) 544-0034
jerry.berg@msfc.nasa.gov
RELEASE: 00-169
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has
reached an agreement with U.S. Air Force and U.S.
Department of Energy facilities in Tennessee to work jointly on
research, development and test activities.
The Memorandum of Understanding, to be signed this week
during the Tennessee Valley 2000 Regional Economic Summit
in Huntsville, focuses on collaboration and leveraging of the
complementary capabilities of the organizations.
The agreement between the Marshall Center and the U.S. Air
Force Arnold Engineering Development Center at Arnold Air
Force Base, Tenn., and U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge
Operations, in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will be signed by officials of
those agencies June 1 at 12:30 p.m. at the Von Braun Center in
Huntsville.
“By working together, we can enhance the effectiveness of our
operations,” said Art Stephenson, Marshall Center director.
“We will benefit from each other’s accomplishments and
capabilities as we pursue new joint opportunities.”
The agreement calls for collaboration in research, development,
test and evaluation to make the best use of scientific and
engineering capabilities and facilities supporting the missions
of the three government agencies.
The Marshall Center has previously reached cooperative
agreements with both Tennessee facilities. The Memorandum
of Understanding is more comprehensive, however, in that the
agencies will seek new opportunities to work on projects
together — rather than merely share information about current
or planned projects.
The Marshall Center is NASA’s premier organization for
development of space transportation and propulsion systems,
as well as NASA’s leader in microgravity research. The Air
Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center provides
aerospace ground test and evaluation products and services,
and is the world’s largest complex of aerospace ground test
facilities. The Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations has
extensive expertise in many areas of science and technology,
including advanced materials, manufacturing and prototyping,
sensors and instrumentation, and advanced computing.
