For Immediate ReleaseFeb. 22, 2001
Media Contact: Ben Walker Phone: (240) 228-6792[email protected]
Johns Hopkins APL Broadens Use of Its Satellite Communications Facility
"-- figured out how to use government assets more wisely."
- Richard Roca
Based on a recent Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. government, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., has broadened use of its Satellite Communications Facility (SCF) to include industrial space organizations for the first time. The Laboratory has already signed contracts with three companies.
"APL and the government, in an innovative partnership, have figured out how to use government assets more wisely," says APL Director Richard T. Roca. "This agreement will reduce the government's cost of doing business by sharing the cost of fixed SCF operating expenses and help national space activities by making our space facilities available to commercial enterprises."
The Memorandum of Understanding is a long-term, multiagency agreement whose participants include APL, the Naval Sea Systems Command, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. NASA is not a signatory to the agreement but will benefit from industrial access to the SCF, which includes APL-owned assets acquired under NASA programs. Under the agreement, the government has first priority on the use of the SCF, and any commercial use of the facility cannot interfere with government requirements for its use.
The Satellite Communications Facility includes government-furnished property as well as equipment and real property owned by APL. It features 5-meter, 10-meter and 60-foot antennas, each supported by telemetry, command and processing systems that are used to track and collect data from satellites, planetary explorations and manned space flight activities.
The Laboratory has agreed to provide SCF services under Lockheed Martin's Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) and through separate contracts with Honeywell DataLynx and Universal Space Net, representing an annual value in excess of $5 million. These commercial companies will be able to schedule the SCF over the Web and use the facility as though it were one of their own ground stations, being billed only for satellite contacts that are conducted.
Through the 18-month, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract agreement with CSOC, the Laboratory will provide ground-based mission and data services to NASA and other customers. APL joins more than 40 CSOC partners providing end-to-end services that include acquisition of space data, transmission of data to end users, and mission control operations.
"The CSOC contract helps fulfill NASA's intent to reduce costs of mission and data services, move that responsibility to industry, and embrace private sector commercial practices and services," says APL Assistant Director for Business Operations Ruth E. Nimmo.
The contracts with Honeywell DataLynx and Universal Space Net are both 5-year agreements that allow the companies to use the SCF to communicate with their satellites.
"The SCF has provided government sponsors with ground support for spacecraft contacts over the past 40 years, recording more than 50,000 satellite passes in the past 15 years," says Facility Manager Glen E. Baer. "With technical support always on call, we've been conducting unattended contacts with satellites since 1995, and now this capability can be shared with commercial users on a cost-effective basis."
Baer says that typically a company would use the SCF for a 15-minute, fixed-price, automated recording of a satellite pass and be billed for the contact. Other arrangements include per-minute use and custom recording of satellite passes involving APL personnel. Customers can schedule their own satellite contacts over the Web.
For more information on APL's commercial space program, go to the "Commercial Space" area at www.commercialspace.jhuapl.edu. For information on the SCF, go to www.commercialspace.jhuapl.edu/scf/. For information on Lockheed Martin's Consolidated Space Operations Contract, go to www.csoconline.com.
Media are welcome to tour the SCF facility. To make arrangements, call Dee Reese, (240) 228-5618, or Ben Walker, (240) 228-6792.
The Applied Physics Laboratory is a not-for-profit laboratory and division of The Johns Hopkins University. APL conducts research and development primarily for national security and for nondefense projects of global significance.
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