Aerospace, NASA Partnership to

Advance Information Technology

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (4/13/98) -- The Aerospace Corporation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have signed a cooperative agreement to stimulate advances in information technology for space missions.

The agreement was signed March 31 by Dr. George Paulikas, Aerospace executive vice president (right in photo), and Dr. Kenneth Ford, director of the Center of Excellence for Information Technology at NASA's Ames Research Center (left in photo). Aerospace President Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge, Jr., signed a parent agreement with Ames on March 30.

"Making ground tracking and commanding operations more efficient through automated decision-support systems and making spacecraft more self-sufficient through intelligent computer systems are possible examples of how Aerospace and NASA will work together," said Dr. Sergio Alvarado of the Computer Systems Division.

Dr. Alvarado said decision-support systems, or smart computers, can assist in areas such as monitoring data from satellites, detecting and diagnosing problems, and suggesting solutions, thus decreasing the workload for ground control operators. Satellites with intelligent computer systems onboard will be able to correct their attitude and orientation, manage their orbits, and perform exploratory missions in deep space.

"Our partnership with NASA will allow us to leverage information technology that we apply to Air Force space programs, as well as make future advances that can be shared," Dr. Alvarado added.

He said work with NASA will correlate with research and prototyping activities Aerospace performs for the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

The agreement represents the 124th partnership NASA has formed since January 1996 with companies, universities and other federal agencies to provide advanced information technology for the next century.