The National Aeronautics and Space Administration awarded Science Applications International Corporation, commonly known as SAIC (NYSE: SAI), a truly huge contract on Wednesday valued at up to $1.76 billion in total.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with cost-plus-award-fee task orders hires SAIC to provide "biomedical, medical and health services in support of all human spaceflight programs at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston." It begins on October 1, and runs for an initial five-year "base period." Two optional extensions to the base contract could, if exercised, extend its duration through 2023.
Under the contract, SAIC will support the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft program, Advanced Exploration Systems, Human Research, Commercial Crew and Cargo, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate. SAIC will be responsible for running fundamental and applied biomedical research, biotechnology development, operational space medicine, and occupational health and medicine. The company will also manage clinical, biomedical, space food, and environmental laboratories, behavioral sciences, and "human factors engineering." And it will be responsible for monitoring and managing the environment aboard NASA spacecraft.
Work will be conducted both at SAIC offices and at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
