NASA awards $355 million IT contract for Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA awarded a $355 million contract to Dynetics Inc. on Dec. 3 to provide information technology services at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The center is the premier NASA group for rocketry, and Dynetics, also based in Huntsville, will provide a range of services that include security, telecommunications, applications, computers and audio visual systems.

Company officials said they also will provide IT services and support to the National Space Science and Technology Center, which conducts research, and the Michaud Assembly Facility, which assembles the external fuel tanks for the space shuttle.

The five-year contract award came as NASA readies the launch of its Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) project, through which the agency will buy systems, IT services and hardware, which are now purchased through five separate contracts valued at more than $4 billon.

NASA's agencywide IT services and support currently is managed through the Unified NASA Information Technology Services pact, worth $1.3 billion, which was awarded to Science Applications International Corp. in 2004. On Dec. 2, NASA extended the contract until Jan. 31, 2011, at a cost of $120 million to ensure it could continue IT support and services until it awarded the I3P contract.