This option modification under the base contract L-3 currently holds extends the period of performance through December 31, 2009. The option is valued at approximately $8.7 million, bringing the total value of the contract to about $37.7 million.
The initial cost-plus-award-fee contract took effect February 9, 2007, with a 23-month base period extending through December 31, 2008, with three one-year options. Two additional one-year option periods yet to be exercised could extend the agreement through December 31, 2011.
Under the base contract, L-3 Communications is responsible for completing development and testing of the SOFIA Airborne System, including modification, fabrication, installation, integration, and verification of various systems to meet mission requirements. Option 1 of the contract covers completion of the SOFIA subsystems, such as the mission control and communication system. The option also includes engineering and flight test support for the telescope cavity door-open flight tests and early science flight programs, and support of reviews leading to NASA public aircraft certification.
The SOFIA program includes a high-altitude airborne observatory consisting of a German-built 2.5-meter (100 inch) infrared telescope mounted in a cavity in the rear fuselage of a highly modified Boeing 747SP jetliner. Scientific instruments housed in the observatory will be capable of celestial observations ranging from visible light through the sub-millimeter far-infrared spectrum. NASA and the German Aerospace Center are developing SOFIA jointly.
Scientists are busy preparing for the "First Light" flight of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, a highly modified Boeing 747SP with a 2.5-meter (8.2-foot) diameter infrared telescope installed in its rear fuselage. The first-light astronomical observation flights are now tentatively scheduled for Spring 2010 from NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, California.
For more details about SOFIA and its mission, visit.