CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA has selected Air Products and Chemicals Inc. located out of Allentown, Pa., for the follow-on contract for the agency-wide acquisition of liquid hydrogen. Liquid Hydrogen is used in NASA’s launch vehicles, including the space shuttle, as a source of fuel.
This fixed price, requirements follow-on contract will start on Dec. 1, 2010. It is scheduled for a one-year base performance period with a one-year option period. The total, maximum potential value of this contract is roughly $18 million, which is comprised of a $7 million base value along with $11 million for the one-year option.
Air Products and Chemicals will supply approximately 10,860,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen to NASA’s Stennis Space Center, Miss.; Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, Ala.; and Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., in support of the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). Liquid hydrogen, when combined with liquid oxygen, serves as fuel in cryogenic rocket engines.
Kennedy Space Center located in Florida is responsible for the acquisition of liquid hydrogen that will be utilized by the space agency. As Florida’s Space Coast is where many unmanned and currently all of the space agency’s manned missions launch into orbit from.