NASA News - NASA Modifies Launch Service Contract To Add Falcon 9 Rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has announced a modification of its NASA
Launch Services (NLS) II contract with Space Exploration Technologies
(SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., to add an additional configuration of
the Falcon 9 rocket to its fleet. The SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 launch
service will be available to the agency's Launch Services Program to
use for future missions in accordance with the on-ramp provision of NLS II.

The NLS II on-ramp provision provides an annual opportunity for new
launch service providers to compete for future missions and allows
existing launch service providers to introduce launch vehicles not
currently on their NLS II contracts.The NLS II contracts are multiple
award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts with
ordering periods through June 2020.

The NLS II contracts support the goals and objectives of the agency's
Science Mission Directorate, Human Exploration and Operations Mission
Directorate, and the Office of the Chief Technologist. Under the
contract, NASA also can provide launch services to other government
agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Launch Services Program Office at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida is responsible for program management. For more information
about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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Expedition 31 Trio Blasts Off for International Space Station

HOUSTON -- NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, Russian Soyuz Commander
Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin blasted off for the
International Space Station at 10:01 p.m. CDT Tuesday, May 14 (9:01
a.m. Baikonur time on May 15), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Acaba, Padalka and Revin are scheduled to dock their Soyuz TMA-04M
spacecraft to the Poisk module of the station at 11:39 p.m.
Wednesday, May 16. They will join Expedition 31 Commander Oleg
Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers
Don Pettit of NASA and André Kuipers of the European Space Agency,
who have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since Dec. 23, 2011. The
six astronauts and cosmonauts will work together for about two months.

NASA Television will provide live docking coverage beginning at 11
p.m. on May 16. Hatch opening and welcoming ceremonies will occur
about three hours later on May 17.

Upon arrival, Acaba, Padalka and Revin will become members of the
Expedition 31 crew, restoring the station's crew complement to six
and continuing scientific research aboard the station.

Pettit, Kononeko and Kuipers are scheduled to return to Earth on July
1. Acaba, Padalka and Revin will return home in mid-September.

Also on board with the crew was a small "Smokey Bear" plush toy
serving as the traditional Soyuz "talisman." Smokey Bear is the U.S.
national symbol for wildfire prevention. Prior to the flight, Acaba
explained he proposed flying Smokey Bear in an effort to raise
awareness of human-caused wildfires. Acaba, an avid outdoorsman,
holds two degrees in geology and served as an environmental education
awareness promoter while in the U.S. Peace Corps.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
To follow Twitter updates from NASA's Expedition 31 astronauts, visit:

https://twitter.com/astro_Pettit

https://twitter.com/astro_Acaba

For more information about Expedition 31 and the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

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