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Schedule including this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, October 2, 2000
The Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) directs a versatile program involving the definition, competition, and selection of multiple contracts resulting in a Catalog of Spacecraft Buses. These "Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity", or IDIQ, contracts offer NASA (or any other U.S. Government Agency) an extremely fast procurement path when planning and executing missions. The approach of the RSDO is to have mission planners define their payload (instruments, specialized data handling, etc.) to the maximum extent possible prior to the selection of one of the IDIQ spacecraft. Utilizing previously developed spacecraft (with modifications), this approach allows for mitigation of technical risk (all vendors have demonstrated success in building "their" spacecraft). The government retains access to all project documentation and has full insight into the spacecraft being delivered. The RSDO acquisition process (solicitation to award) nominally takes 2-3 months, compared to a traditional acquisition process of twelve to eighteen months. Also, since the spacecraft involve less development, the contract period of performance averages 24-30 months and culminates in delivery in orbit. The talk will also describe the experience with the "QuickScat" and "QuickToms" missions - for quick delivery to orbit of replacement instruments - and the experience with the "ICESAT" and "SWIFT" missions where payload instruments are being developed in parallel with the spacecraft build.
William Watson earned a B. S. from George Washington University (Physics/1971) and a M. S. from the University of Maryland (Physics/1974). In 1974, Bill began a varied career at GSFC in the management of the ground and space components of the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN). He is currently Chief of the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO), where spacecraft, regarded for decades as a point source of RF signals and a target for tracking facilities, are now taking on new substance and meaning. Bill was awarded a NASA Medal for Exceptional Achievement in 1997.
Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Jim Gatlin
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