NASA has awarded Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. in Houston a contract for technical support services for the Constellation Program, which is developing new spacecraft to travel beyond low Earth orbit.

The Constellation fleet includes the Orion crew vehicle, the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, and the Altair human lunar lander.

The five-year contract has a base two-year value of $17.6 million, with a total potential value of $49.5 million if three one-year extension options are exercised.

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. will provide the resources to conduct tasks in support of the Constellation Program systems engineering and integration, and test and evaluation. Tasks include the definition, analysis, assessment, engineering study and documentation of operations concepts, technical and programmatic requirements and processes, and system implementations in support of NASA-led activities.

The two-year base period of the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract and firm-fixed price contract begins Aug. 1. Phase-in of the contract begins July 1.

Work for the contract will be performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Subcontractors include Orbital Sciences Corp. in Greenbelt, Md., and ARES Corporation in Houston.

For more information about the contract, visit: http://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/CTSC

For information about NASA's Constellation program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/constellation