Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ubvax!ames!yee
From: yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: NASA ASRM production and testing sites announced (Forwarded)
Message-ID: <12358@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 26 Jul 88 18:12:50 GMT
Reply-To: yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 63

Barbara Selby                                     July 26, 1988
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    12:00 p.m. EDT

Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.


RELEASE:  88-104


NASA ASRM PRODUCTION AND TESTING SITES ANNOUNCED


     NASA today announced selection of the government sites for 
the production and testing facilities for the agency's planned 
Space Shuttle Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM).  The Tennessee 
Valley Authority property known as Yellow Creek, in northeastern 
Mississippi has been selected for the location of the facility 
for production of the ASRM, while NASA's Stennis Space Center 
near Bay St. Louis, Miss., has been selected for testing of the 
motor.

     These sites will be identified as the government sites in a 
Request for Proposals (RFP) to be issued in the near future for 
the design, development, test and evaluation of the ASRM.  The 
companies responding to the RFP must use the selected location as 
the basis for their proposals to build a government-owned, 
contractor-operated facility, as well as a required proposal of a 
privately financed option for the required facility.  

     In addition to the government sites, NASA's ASRM acquisition 
plan encouraged interested companies to submit an optional 
proposal for a privately-owned solid rocket motor facility at a 
site of the offeror's choice.

     Maximum utilization also will be made of available 
manufacturing and computer capability at the Michoud Assembly 
Facility and the Slidell Computer Complex, both located in 
southeast Louisiana, to minimize total program costs.  It is 
estimated that job opportunities for about 1,400 people in the 
northeast Mississippi area and employment of an additional 600 
people in the area east of New Orleans could result.

     The site selection official, J.R. Thompson Jr., Director of 
the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., made the 
selections with the concurrence of NASA Headquarters following 
several months of evaluation by a NASA ASRM Site Evaluation 
Board.  The board, headed by Larry Ross, Deputy Director of the 
Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, was formed to consider sites at 
Yellow Creek, Stennis and Kennedy Space Center, Fla.  The board 
was instructed to consider at least the following factors:  
transportation for raw materials and furnished products; 
construction costs, including any costs to acquire or adopt the 
site; environmental constraints; expansion capability, including 
a buffer zone; support infrastructure; utilities availability; 
availability of suitable labor base; industrial and public 
safety; and security.

     The planned ASRM, which will replace the current Redesigned 
Solid Rocket Motors in the mid-1990s, will incorporate 
substantive design changes to improve the reliability and safety 
margins, as well as provide a significant added performance 
capability to the Space Shuttle.