NASA extends media archive deadline

NASA's effort to put more than 115,000 film and video titles and millions of still images online for public viewing has hit a slight delay, but the agency says that won't affect the project's rollout.

NASA wants a contractor to create a digital archive that would make all of the agency's video and still images available online and replace the agency's various disconnected archives. However, NASA officials recently pushed back the deadline for proposals to June 25, three weeks later than the original target date.

Under the proposal, NASA wouldn't pay the vendor. Instead, the partnership, called a Nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement, stipulates that the party chosen, either an organization or consortium, to manage the archive gains the right to use the images.

"There's been a lot of interest," said NASA spokeswoman Debbie Rivera.

The proposal deadline was delayed to resolve various questions from prospective partners, she said.

"We provided a lot more [information] based on queries we've had and we wanted to make sure everyone had the same information — and that we had given them time to assimilate that information into proposals," Rivera said.

The details of the services-for-images exchange remain undefined. "It will be based on the proposal," Rivera said. "How they structure their business plan will be up to them,"