Ford Aerospace Wins Space-Station Contract

NASA has selected Ford Aerospace to provide safety and quality evaluation for the space station and other manned space flight programs, an award that company officials say could potentially be worth $150 million.

SRS Technologies, a Newport Beach-based defense contractor, is one of five subcontractors that participated in Ford’s winning bid for the NASA award.

“We believe this is a very important contract,” said Norman Black, a spokesman for Ford Aerospace, a Newport Beach-based subsidiary of Ford Motor Co. “This contract positions us in a key role for NASA as the agency moves forward on the space station program.”

The nation’s first permanently manned space station is scheduled to be completed in the late 1990s. However, cuts in the program’s budget could delay completion of the project.

Ford said it won a six-month competition among several contracting teams.

At stake was a two-year contract, plus an option to renew the award for three additional years.

Ford placed the value of the five-year contract at about $150 million.

Under the contract, Ford will help NASA in reviewing equipment designs and testing flight hardware before it is used in space. The work will involve equipment for the space shuttle as well as the space station.

Ford will perform the work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The company expects to employ 285 people on the program.

Besides SRS Technologies, the other subcontractors are EBASCO Corp., Arvin-Calspan Corp., Unisys Corp. and TAI Inc.