– The Boeing Company today announced the formation
of a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to providing cost-efficient space
operations mission and data services to government and commercial space
customers.
The Houston-based Boeing Space Operations (BSO) will be home to the
Company’s work on NASA’s multibillion-dollar Consolidated Space Operations
Contract (CSOC), for which a Boeing-led industry team is currently in competition.
CSOC consolidates mission and data services for more than 100 existing
and planned NASA spacecraft supporting manned, deep space and Earth remote
sensing space activities. NASA is expected to award the 10-year (5 years
with a 5-year priced option) CSOC contract on July 1.
BSO will also support the ground operations for the U.S. Air Force’s
Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) at Falcon Air Force Base, Colo.;
offer its capabilities to provide mission and data services to Motorola-based
communications satellite programs; and pursue other opportunities in the
burgeoning government and commercial space operations markets, both in
the U.S. and abroad.
In addition, BSO will work closely with Boeing Information and Communications
Systems, Boeing Expendable Launch Systems and the Sea Launch joint venture
to assess and recommend actions to improve customer service and reduce
costs for those businesses. The goal, says BSO president Rick Stephens,
is for Boeing to become the global provider of choice for low-cost, reliable,
commercially-based space operations services.
“The formation of BSO creates a market-focused organization and aligns
the company’s businesses to efficiently pursue and support both NASA’s
CSOC and other external space operations customers, as well as internal
Boeing customers such as Delta IV, Sea Launch, Resource 21, DigitalXpress
and Aviation Information Services,” said Stephens. “Expansion of our customer
base will, in turn, result in lower space operations service unit costs
for all customers.” In his new position, Stephens will report to Jim Albaugh,
president, Boeing Space Transportation. He will also continue as vice president
and general manager, Boeing Reusable Space Systems, and will chair the
CSOC Senior Advisory Board, which acts as the NASA CSOC executive leadership
council for integrating Boeing CSOC team member companies and senior leadership.
The company today also announced that former astronaut Dick Covey has
been appointed vice president, BSO and CSOC program director, reporting
to Stephens. Covey was previously the Boeing CSOC Team’s deputy program
director for Operations. In his new position, Covey will be responsible
for day-to-day CSOC operations, ensuring that customer requirements are
met cost effectively and responsively and that missions are safely and
successfully executed.
Through CSOC, NASA hopes to cut in half the roughly $600 million a year
it currently spends on mission and data services by moving end-to-end responsibility
and accountability to industry and streamlining and adapting private-sector
commercial practices and services. These savings would then be redirected
to science, development and exploration.
CSOC encompasses NASA’s total space operations infrastructure, including
all elements currently managed autonomously under 15 separate contracts
by nearly 6,000 people at numerous private contractors and five major NASA
centers (Johnson Space Center, Houston; Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
Md.; Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala.; and
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.).
