NASA shops landing site to commerical space cos.

NASA today issued a formal request for expressions of interest by non-NASA organizations, including commercial space companies, for use of the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla.

The announcement is the first step in considering how and when NASA can expand access to available capacity at the SLF by government, commercial, and academic organizations.

NASA’s use of the SLF to support the Space Shuttle Program and other agency activities has precedence over prospective users through the remaining operational life of the orbiter and beyond. NASA is seeking to accommodate conditional access by additional users.

NASA is investigating the potential to support research and technology demonstration flights of piloted, unpiloted, and spaceflight vehicles; parabolic research and demonstration flights; academic and commercial space flight research and demonstration flights; logistical support, and others. Uses that can be readily accommodated at nearby airports, such as executive aircraft flights and conventional commercial passenger aircraft flights, will not be considered. Areas of interest are described in the Request For Information (RFI) published on today’s Federal Business Opportunities Website.

The RFI is a part of NASA’s ongoing efforts to support the President’s Management Agenda and the U.S. Space Transportation Policy. “The SLF is a unique facility, and we would like to see its full use by the nation’s aerospace community,” said NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations William Readdy.

Organizations have until August 30 to respond with detailed expressions of interest. Based on those responses, NASA will determine what uses can be accommodated on the SLF. NASA anticipates developing policies, plans, and procedures in coordination with the Air Force and FAA to enable SLF access to non-NASA users.

For information about the RFI on the Web, visit:

http://prod.nais.nasa.gov

From NASA