NASA Centers to Manage Unbundled Contract NASA detailed its preliminary plans for unbundling the $3.4 billion Consolidated Space Operations Contract and dividing the work among its field centers. More than 400 people, most of them contractor representatives, attended an industry briefing in Washington last month. The new solicitation, known as Space Mission Communications and Data Services, is due to be released this spring. “It is anticipated that separate contracts will be awarded for the individual work packages at each (NASA) Center,” the agency said. The number of work packages has not yet been determined. Work packages will be managed by the Goddard, Johnson, Kennedy and Marshall centers and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Highlights of the briefings are available at www.nasa.gov/newsinfo/contracts/smcds.html. The announcement said it is too early to say whether some work packages will be set-aside in any small-business category. The acquisition strategy will be determined early this year. In 1998 NASA consolidated 18 spacecraft communications and support contracts into CSOC. Lockheed Martin won the contract to provide spacecraft tracking, communications and data services and to operate mission control centers. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe announced last year that the contract would not be renewed when it expires in December because it had not produced sufficient savings.