ITT wins $1.2B NASA network deal

ITT Corp. will furnish telemetry, tracking and command services to operate and maintain satellite communications for NASA under a contract potentially worth $1.26 billion.

Under the agreement, ITT's Advanced Engineering and Sciences unit will support NASA's Space and Near Earth networks. The company will maintain satellites and associated ground systems located primarily at White Sands Complex near Las Cruces, N.M., and in Guam. It will also provide support for Space Network sites in American Samoa, on Ascension Island and in Australia, company officials said.

The contract has a base period of five years and three months, and two one-year options, they said.

The networks provide communications services for the International Space Station, space shuttle program, Hubble Space Telescope and Earth Observing System satellites.

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity portion of the Space Communications Network Services contract covers operations at Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va.; the White Sands Complex; the Merritt Island Launch Annex in Florida; McMurdo Station in Antarctica; and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

ITT Advanced Engineering and Sciences, of Herndon, Va., is a unit of ITT Corp., of White Plains, N.Y. The parent company ranks No. 14 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.