ASRC Aerospace Contributes to NASA's Constellation System

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--(Business Wire)--ASRC Aerospace Corporation is providing design and development
engineering, systems engineering, configuration management, three
dimensional modeling and visualization, and project management
services to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA)
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), Constellation Program
(CxP) Ground Operations (GO) Project for processing the Ares 1/Orion
vehicles at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

NASA recently awarded ASRC Aerospace a three-year extension to the
original five-year University-affiliated Spaceport Technology
Development Contract (USTDC). As part of this contract ASRC Aerospace
is contributing to the design, development and activation of NASA's
ground support equipment and systems used for processing the
Constellation Program elements at KSC.

The Ares I/Orion vehicle is a crucial component of the CxP and
will initially provide transport to the International Space Station
(ISS) with crew rescue and crew transfer capabilities, followed by
lunar missions and ultimately Mars missions. The Ares V vehicle, a
follow-on development effort, will be used for lunar and Mars
missions.

An Alaska Native Corporation headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland,
ASRC Aerospace is providing technical design support and project
planning to the Constellation Ground Operations Project Office and the
Engineering Directorate at Kennedy Space Center. ASRC Aerospace is a
key asset in supporting program trade studies, development of the
program's requirements, development of the program's design concepts
and products, and operations formulation phase.

The GO project is responsible for the launch site development,
ground processing and operations efforts at the launch, landing, and
retrieval sites in support of the Constellation Program. In addition,
the GO project supports spacecraft and launch vehicle design for
operability and interface definition to Ground Systems. Launch site
development includes new and modified facilities, Ground Support
Equipment (GSE), and launch processing planning efforts. The goal is
to provide safe and economical maintenance and checkout, preflight
servicing, and launch and landing recovery.

The models developed by ASRC Aerospace's Systems Integration group
were just a few of the many images used by NASA to depict current
design concepts. These images have been shown in Aviation Week
(December 10, 2007 issue) and The Florida Today newspaper.

"Our team is providing personnel who can introduce lessons learned
through program management, systems engineering, design and operations
experience from previous human space flight development programs,"
explained Dick Lyon, Vice President of Florida Operations for ASRC
Aerospace.

"The company is assisting KSC in concept development and oversight
of processing facilities and systems, command and control systems,
mechanical structures, fluids systems, communications and data
systems, and logistics systems."

The primary focus for ASRC Aerospace is to assist KSC in the
design, development, implementation and sustaining engineering of
those previously mentioned systems and facilities. The design effort
will continue through the Ares 1/Orion project and into the Ares V
project development phase.

Specific design accomplishments include providing system
architecture support to the baseline effort of the Command, Control
and Communications architecture that will be used to checkout the Ares
I spacecraft. ASRC Aerospace has prepared the requirements
documentation for all CxP GO elements, systems, and subsystems. This
involves detailed analysis of all electrical and mechanical systems to
determine planned use and operational needs. ASRC Aerospace also
tailored a Monte Carlo simulation program incorporating specific
criteria and utilized it to perform the analysis for the Pad 39B
Lightning Protection System. The analysis resulted in validating a
three tower design concept thus providing a considerable cost savings
compared to the original four tower design concept.

ASRC Aerospace is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arctic Slope
Regional Corporation and is dedicated to providing comprehensive
professional, technical, and engineering services. The Arctic Slope
Regional Corporation is an Alaska Native Corporation owned by more
than 9,500 Inupiat Eskimos primarily located along Alaska's North
Slope.

ASRC Aerospace Corporation
Angela Brandt, 301-837-5359
angela.brandt@asrcfederal.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008