Millennium Engineering and Integration Co. of Arlington, Va., was tapped as the lead systems integrator for the Pentagon’s new Rapid Response Space Works facility, according to a July 14 NASA press release.
Rapid Response Space Works, nicknamed Chileworks for its Albuquerque, N.M., location, was conceived by the Pentagon’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office to rapidly build and launch operational satellites to augment or replace existing capabilities in as little as seven days. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., is acting as the acquisition agent for Chileworks.
Chileworks’ first project will be the Modular Space Vehicle program, which is intended to refine the procedures and standards for developing satellites on short order. The Modular Space Vehicle program is planned to culminate in 2012 with the launch of a synthetic aperture radar satellite, but the Pentagon has said having that capability on orbit is less important than the processes to be established. A hardware contract award for the Modular Space Vehicle is expected in August, according to an industry source.
Millennium Engineering was awarded a five-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for planning, engineering and integration activities at Chileworks, the press release said. That contract and the Modular Space Vehicle contract have a combined ceiling of $500 million, it said.
