Harris to continue Air Force space program support

Harris Corp. will continue providing support services to the Air Force under a $60 million contract option exercised by the Air Force's Network and Space Operations and Maintenance program.

The award consists of a six-month base and six one-year options that bring the potential overall contract value to $405 million. Harris was awarded the contract in January 2008.

Under the first-year option, Harris will continue to provide operations and maintenance support to the 50th Space Wing's Air Force Satellite Control Network at locations worldwide.

The Air Force program, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., is a global, continuously operational network of ground stations, operational control nodes and communications links that support launch and command and control of various space programs managed by the Defense Department and other national security space organizations.

The network is responsible for providing readiness, launch, early orbit and on-orbit support, and anomaly resolution for a variety of military satellites.

The Harris team delivered high levels of operations, maintenance and service performance to one of the country's most critical systems in the first contract year, said Ted Hengst, president of Harris IT Services, in a statement.

The Harris-led team consists of Lockheed Martin Information Technology, Faith Enterprises Inc., ASRC Aerospace, Arctic Slope World Services, Nortel Government Solutions and G
nther Douglas.

Harris, of Melbourne, Fla., ranks No. 13 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.