US-based technology specialist Science Applications International (SAIC) has secured a $620m deal from Nasa to provide multidiscipline engineering support services for the latter’s scientific and exploration missions.

The indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity contract has a five-year base period of performance.

Part of the Nasa omnibus multidiscipline engineering services (OMES) II contract, the newly awarded deal covers engineering support to the space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Centre’s Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate (AETD).

Under the single-award deal, SAIC will provide engineering services for the study, design, systems engineering, development, fabrication, integration, testing, verification, spaceflight operation, and airborne and ground system hardware and software.

“We will strive to bring innovative approaches and solutions utilising our science mission understanding and expertise, and interdisciplinary creativity and capabilities among our teams.”

SAIC will also help in the development and validation of new technologies to enable future space and science missions under the new deal, as well as offer support to the components, subsystems, systems and instruments for suborbital craft and spacecraft.

SAIC will further perform sustaining engineering, performance assurance and system safety activities.

SAIC Federal Civilian Customer Group general manager and senior vice-president Bob Genter said: “The OMES II contract represents a large-scale and diverse effort supporting Nasa Goddard’s important work on current and future applied engineering technologies.

“We will strive to bring innovative approaches and solutions utilising our science mission understanding and expertise, and interdisciplinary creativity and capabilities among our teams.”

Goddard’s AETD is currently providing multidiscipline engineering expertise to all of the centre’s projects.

AETD engineers also support Goddard’s mission to build satellites and instruments, as well as operate and control spacecraft.

It further helps in acquiring and distributing data for the benefit of national and global earth and space science.