WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a contract with a maximum value of $273 million to Barrios Technology, Ltd., of Houston for International Space Station mission integration services support.

This is a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that includes a base period of more than five years and two one-year options. The base period, from Oct. 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2015, is valued at $185.5 million. Option 1, from Jan. 1, 2016, to Dec. 31, 2016, is valued at approximately $42.7 million. Option 2, from Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2017, is valued at $45 million.

Barrios Technology will provide support for engineering and technical services required to support the International Space Station Program. This includes products and services for space station mission planning; integration and operations; international partner integration; and Russian language and logistics services.

WASHINGTON -- NASA senior managers met with their counterparts representing other space agencies at the National Harbor, Md., on June 23, to discuss globally-coordinated human and robotic space exploration.

The meeting participants agreed that significant progress has been made since the joint release of The Global Exploration Strategy (GES) in May 2007. They agreed steps should be taken to coordinate a long-term space exploration vision that is sustainable and affordable.

The meeting included representatives from the Italian Space Agency, the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, China National Space Administration, Canadian Space Agency, German Aerospace Center, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, NASA, National Space Agency of Ukraine, Russian Federal Space Agency and the U.K. Space Agency.

Lou McFadin, W5DID reported that ARISSat-1 is currently undergoing assembly and testing procedures in Orlando, Florida. In preparation for delivery of the ARISSat-1 flight unit to Russia in July continuous operation testing of flight components was started and has gone well.

The next milestone includes completing thermal vacuum testing followed by vibration testing at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia prior to shipping the flight version of ARISSat-1 to Russia for the ride up to the ISS on a supply mission.

The ARRISat-1 Guided Tour video produced at Dayton Hamvention 2010 and the latest photos and information can be viewed on-line at: http://arissat1.org/

SpaceDaily.com reported this week that ESA's Columbus module maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS)aboard the International Space Station was switched on. The AIS antenna, mounted externally on the Columbus module, was fabricated by AMSAT and ARISS member Lou McFadin, W5DID and the US ARISS team. The team has also fabricated a nearly-identical twin amateur band antenna for ARISS. The ARISS antenna will be used when the Ericsson amateur radio gear is activated in early 2011.

ESA reported receiving more than 90,000 Class A AIS messages during a 14 hour test between 1900 GMT on 2 June and 0900 GMT on 3 June. This generated a global view of maritime traffic as the ISS orbit crosses all major shipping lanes.

It's an amazing scene: A NASA space shuttle rocketing into space while U.S. Air Force pilots watch from their airborne F-15E Strike Eagle jet fighter. The stunning snapshot was taken May 14 as NASA's shuttle Atlantis soared into orbit on its final scheduled mission.

Air Force Capt. John Peltier took the photograph from a separate aircraft. In the photo, Lt. Col. Gabriel Green and Capt. Zachary Bartoe patrol the airspace around NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in the foreground while Atlantis streaks spaceward, leaving a white exhaust plume in its wake.

http://www.sp

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contacts
2. Japanese Club Talks to ISS via ARISS Contact
3. ARISS Web Page Links to DLN Module
4. ARISSat Safety Review to be Held
5. AMSAT Covers ARISS Antennas

1. Upcoming School Contacts
Summer camp "Astronauts in Forest," Perugia, Italy has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Friday, July 2 at 19:50 UTC via telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium. The camp teaches youth why it is necessary to study and protect the environment. It explains that space research is very important for the future of our planet and younger generations and it also initiates the children in the use of scientific instruments.

People can upload their information on a new website under the Face in Space program to have it go into orbit along with the astronauts on the last two times the reusable space planes will launch.

In a statement released by NASA's space shuttle program chief John Shannon he said: "The Space Shuttle Program belongs to the public, and we are excited when we can provide an opportunity for people to share the adventure of our missions. This website will allow you to be a part of history and participate as we complete our final missions "

The next to last mission is scheduled to launch on September 16, which will be on Discovery, and the final space shuttle to go on orbit will be Endeavour, with its mission lifting off no earlier than November 27.

The Expedition 24 crew members aboard the International Space Station were busy with a variety of maintenance and science activities Wednesday as they orbited the Earth.

Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko tested the station's manual TORU docking system for Monday's relocation of the newly arrived Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. The Soyuz will be moved to the Rassvet module, the newest component of the station, clearing the way for the arrival of the ISS Progress 38 cargo craft on July 2. With fellow Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker aboard, Fyodor Yurchikhin will undock the Soyuz TMA-19 from the Zarya module at 1:58 p.m. EDT and dock to Rassvet around 25 minutes later.

Soviet cosmonaut Leonid Kizim, who in 1986 commanded the only mission in history to visit two space stations in one flight - which also marked the first crewed flight to Mir - died Monday, according to Russia's Federal Space Agency. He was 68.

On March 13, 1986, Kizim, a veteran of two earlier space flights, launched with crewmate Vladimir Solovyov on Soyuz T-15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. After two days catching up with the fledging station in orbit, they docked with the then-one-module Mir outpost.

As the inaugural crew to Mir, the first continuously crewed space station, Kizim and Solovyov spent 51 days configuring the core module and unloading two unmanned Progress cargo vehicles that arrived during their stay. It was the second mission together for the two cosmonauts, who earlier flew together on the Soyuz T-10 mission in 1984.

NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin launched to the International Space Station aboard their Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft at 4:35 p.m. CDT Tuesday (3:35 a.m. Wednesday local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Wheelock, Walker and Soyuz commander Yurchikhin are scheduled to dock with their new home at 5:25 p.m. Thursday, June 17. They will join Expedition 24 crewmates Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut, and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, the station commander, and Mikhail Kornienko aboard the orbiting laboratory.