NASA awards $230 million contract for support facility

[The Straight Story]

NASA awards $230 million contract for support facility

By Beth Dickey
[e-mail]
In October, NASA will combine a variety of financial management, personnel, procurement and information technology functions in a facility similar to those now operated by 70 percent of the Fortune 500.

The countdown to centralization began this week, with site selection and a $230-million, 10-year contract award for the NASA Shared Services Center. It is expected to create about 500 jobs paying an average of $55,000 a year by the time it is fully up and running in 2007. On May 9, NASA chose Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church, Va., over Las Vegas-based Trax International and IBM of White Plains, N.Y., as the prime contractor. The agency said CSC chose Bay St. Louis, Miss., over the cities of Huntsville, Ala. and Brook Park, Ohio, to reap the economic benefit of a brand new government facility.

Executive Director Richard Arbuthnot, the NASA official guiding the procurement, declined requests for interviews. But he said in a statement, "We look forward to establishing a world-class organization to provide the kind of timely, efficient and effective support so important to NASA operations."

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