With the start of the Test and Operations Support Contract, or TOSC, Jacobs Technology Inc. will be bringing more jobs to Florida’s Space Coast as NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is positioning itself for the next era of space exploration. The Jacobs leadership team hosted four town hall meetings the week of Jan. 14 to give employees at Kennedy an opportunity to learn more.
Working with the Jacobs team are subcontractors Engineering Research and Consulting Inc. (ERC) of Huntsville, Ala., and Aerodyne Industries LLC of Oldsmar, Fla. Jacobs already supports NASA through several long-term engineering, scientific, operations and maintenance, and technical contracts at 10 NASA centers and sites.
The Jacobs team is led by Andy Allen, TOSC’s general manager. During the town hall meetings, he emphasized that safety will be an important part of the organization’s culture.
“Kennedy has an excellent safety program,” said Allen, a former NASA astronaut and veteran aerospace executive. “The culture here lives, breathes and walks the talk of safety. Jacobs approach will be to add value to that process.”
NASA awarded its TOSC to Jacobs of Tullahoma, Tenn., for overall management and implementation of ground systems capabilities, flight hardware processing and launch operations at Kennedy. This work will support the International Space Station, Ground Systems Development and Operations, the Space Launch System, Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Launch Services programs.
The TOSC begins March 1, following a two-month phase-in period that started Jan. 2. Allen noted that the management team will be busy between now and the contract start date. “Right now, we’re not sure what the exact number will be,” he said, “but we will be hiring something like 500 plus. We are also planning on some future growth.”
The contract is another step forward as Kennedy transitions to a 21st-century launch facility with multiple users, both private and government. The infrastructure taking shape is designed to host many kinds of spacecraft and rockets sending people on America’s future voyages in space.
Jacobs’ managers stressed that TOSC is part of a new era in space flight.
“This is not a successor contract,” said Lee Whitham, vice president and director of Human Resources for Jacobs. “TOSC is a brand new contract for a new day.”