NASA, George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Procurement Office, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812

A -- RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EFFORT ENTITLED ''SPACE STATION FURNACE FACILITY HIGH GRADIENT FURNACE WITH QUENCH'' SOL 8-GP37-HGFQ POC Contact Marty Hanson, GP37-H, Contract Specialist, (205)544-0989, or Steve Morris, GP37/Contracting Officer, (205)544-0380 NASA has a requirement for a new furnace experiment module designed to accommodate basic research and studies of phenomena involved in solidification of materials with emphasis on accommodating materials science experiments. The development of this hardware will support the NASA Microgravity Science and Applications Program objectives and the Space Station Furnace Facility (SSFF). This procurement is for the design and development of the SSFF High Gradient Furnace with Quench (HGFQ), which is a High Gradient/Quench Bridgman furnace with sample change out capability. Operational resources and controls will be provided by the SSFF which is being developed in-house at MSFC. The procurement will contain the requirement for flight operations and mission support of the furnace for 1 year after on-orbit installation. The HGFQ will be deployed on- orbit aboard the United States Laboratory Module of the International Space Station. The HGFQ is intended as a long duration payload that will operate in the SSFF. The present targeted launch opportunity for the SSFF HGFQ to the International Space Station is December 2000. It is anticipated that a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for the SSFF HGFQ procurement will be issued in July 1996, for industry comment. Firms shall respond to this announcement within 15 days from publication of this notice. Firms responding to this announcement will be provided a copy of the draft RFP. Responses should include a brief description of the firms relevant qualifications and capabilities. Transmission by facsimile to (205) 544-9354 or by Internet e-mail to marty.hanson@msfc.nasa.gov is acceptable. (0156)

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