NASA Extends Space Station Contract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration awarded a contract extension to the European Space Agency’s Space Technology Center.

NASA said the contract modification is for additional engineering services for the International Space Station Node 2 and 3 modules and extends the current contract through June 30, 2011. The two-year extension increases the value of the $22 million fixed price contract to $49.5 million.

Node 2, also known as the Harmony module, is scheduled for delivery to the space station on the STS-120 mission, currently slated for an Oct. 23 launch. Node 3 is still in development in Italy as part of an agreement between NASA and the ESA.

Node 2 will serve as a passageway between three station science experiment facilities: the U.S. Destiny laboratory, Japan’s Kibo module and the ESA’s Columbus laboratory.