Kari Fluegel

Johnson Space Center, Houston March 30, 1990

(Phone: 713/483-5111)

Release: 90-46

NASA CALLS FOR MIDDECK LOCKER MODULE PROPOSALS

NASA Thursday released a call for proposals to lease space

and related services on a pressurized manned module to expand the
Space Shuttle orbiter's middeck locker experiment capability.

Called the Commercial Middeck Augmentation Module (CMAM),

the commercially-developed and owned module will ride in the
orbiter payload bay when carried, be accessible through the air
lock and add the volume equivalent of about 50 middeck lockers to
the orbiter's capacity.

The request for proposals seeks responses from companies

that can provide the module for lease by the government; physical
and operational integration of the module and the experiment
requirements; operator training; and data collection, processing
and distribution.

Need for the additional capability emanates from NASA's

Commercial Development of Space Program. In support of private
sector research initiatives, NASA is offering Shuttle-based
flight research opportunities through its grant program for
Centers for the Commercial Development of Space. The experiments
will involve breakthrough technologies in areas such as materials
processing, protein crystal growth, biotechnology and fluid
dynamics. The government's minimum requirements are for the
lease of 175 middeck locker volume equivalents and related
services to be provided over five flights beginning in 1993 and
ending in 1995. An option, if proposed and exercised, will
involve 25 additional middeck locker equivalents and related
services to be provided on a September 1992 flight.

- more -
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Deadline for the proposals is April 30. In fiscal year

1991, approximately $14 million is available for the CMAM
project. The entire project is budgeted for $180 million through
1995.
 The CMAM will be managed by the CMAM Project Office in the
New Initiatives Office at the Johnson Space Center, Houston.

-end-

NASA news releases and other NASA

information is available electronically on CompuServe and GEnie,
the General Electric Network for Information Exchange. For
information on CompuServe, call 1-800-848-8199 and ask for
representative 176. For information on GEnie, call
1-800-638-9636.

TO: MDS/PRA Group

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DATE & TIME: FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1990. 2:40 P.M.

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