NASA Selects Ball Aerospace for Spaceflight Instrument Support

HAMPTON, Va. – NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., has selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., to assess and possibly refurbish the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE III) spaceflight instrument, which will measure gases in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The Boulder firm will provide technical support of an instrument assessment and refurbishment under the $9.7-million task-order contract. SAGE III originally was manifested as a payload on the International Space Station until the flight was cancelled following loss of the space shuttle Columbia. The spacecraft has been in storage at Langley since January 2004.

SAGE III has not been committed to a flight mission. However, if additional work is authorized, the five-year sole-source contract will allow task orders to be issued for assessment of the instrument, support of mission accommodation studies, and refurbishment and ground support equipment updates.

For more about SAGE III, go to http://www-sage3.larc.nasa.gov