NASA picks Northrop, Titan

Northrop Grumman Information Technology and Titan have captured NASA independent verification and validation (IV&V) contracts worth up to $200 million each.

The integrators will compete for verification and validation software projects, with work to be performed at a NASA center in Fairmont, W.Va. The work will support programs such as the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and the James Webb Space Telescope, according to NASA. Each contract has a five-year ordering period.

NASA defines verification as determining whether the safety requirements for a given piece of software are being fulfilled. The validation process, meanwhile, establishes whether software meets a customer’s needs.

For Titan, the contract represents its seventh recompete win for NASA's verification and validation work, according to a company spokesman. "Our IV&V team has been working on NASA IV&V programs since 1987," he said.

Titan's team includes Galaxy Global, GeoControl Systems, Global Science and Technology, the Institute for Scientific Research, Mid-Atlantic Research and Innovation Center, ProLogic, TMC Technologies and Westar ELMCO.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center awarded the two indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity task-order contracts. But the verification and validation vehicle is open to all NASA organizations and programs, according to Titan.