(Reuters) – Houston-based engineering company KBR Inc said on Monday it was awarded a $570.3 million contract by NASA to develop and execute spaceflight operations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Under the contract, KBR will perform International Space Station payload operations and support the testing of NASA’s flagship space launch system.
NASA is leaning heavily on private companies built around shared visions for space exploration, as it gears up for a long-term presence on the moon and prepares for a manned mission to Mars.
The space launch system, set to debut next year, is currently NASA’s ride for transporting humans from the Earth to the moon by 2024.
KBR, which until April 2007 was the engineering and construction arm of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co, said on Monday its work would support various NASA programs, payload developers, educational institutions, international partner space agencies and commercial partners.
Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.