For more than 40 years, the Goddard Space Flight Center has been at the forefront of scientific research and exploration programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As one of 10 NASA centers, Goddard is a leader in the studies of earth and space science based on its programs of world-class research, cutting-edge facilities and equipment, and advanced technology. Researchers draw on their data from spacecraft, sounding rockets, balloons, and comprehensive ground-based field campaigns to discover new details about the birth and evolution of our universe, the complex interactions between our sun and the earth, and the natural and human-induced causes of change on the earth’s long-term climate.

This Class 10,000 clean room was constructed to support Goddard inspection and testing efforts for Goddard spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the lunar reconnaissance orbiter, and others

Created in 1959 with a staff of fewer than 100 Naval Research Laboratory personnel, Goddard has now grown into 33 major buildings on a 1,200-acre campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, with a diverse workforce of thousands of civil servants, contractors, and partners around the world. More than 2.6 million square feet of high-tech, state-of-the-art laboratories, computer centers, and clean rooms are interspersed with office, support, maintenance, and institutional facilities.

Parsons began providing A/E and construction management services to the Goddard Center in 1995 and, in 2000, won a 10-year, follow-on FaCETS (facilities, construction, engineering, and technical services) contract that expanded our role to include construction and information technology (IT) support. Working closely with our primary client, the Facilities Management Division (FMD), we play a key role in assisting FMD in its stewardship of the institution by providing the services necessary to restore, revitalize, and modernize Goddard today and into the future.

Loop road construction site

In 2002, under our FaCETS program management services contract, we developed a 20-year Facilities Master Plan for Goddard to rely on as its framework for making decisions about future facilities. One strategic initiative of the master plan physically unified the center’s separate east and west campuses. Five years later, Parsons designed—and is today constructing—a road segment that joins these two campuses. Also part of the master plan initiative, we began the environmental assessment and preliminary design for a new shipping and receiving facility. By combining our efforts with FMD’s, our yearly institutional support for high-profile NASA missions and programs involves either self-performing or managing subcontractors on about 1,000 projects, ranging in values up to millions of dollars. Our in-house crew representing 29 skilled trades has never missed a critical deadline.

Parsons’ design and construction accomplishments include:

• Sprinkler installation in administrative offices

  Installed critical backup power to the operations control center for the earth-observing system’s (EOS’s) trio of satellites: Terra, Aqua, and Aura. The EOS mission provides a multidiscipline study of the earth’s interrelated processes (atmosphere, oceans, and land surface) and their relationship to the earth’s climate and environmental changes.
• Installed critical backup power to Goddard’s mission operations center for the lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO).
• Designed and constructed an advanced interferometry and metrology optics laboratory.
• Constructed a Class 10,000 clean room to support Hubble Space Telescope and other Goddard missions as well as a Class 1000 space laser assembly clean room.
• Designed and constructed a detector characterization laboratory with its supporting clean room.
• Designed and constructed Goddard’s digital TV studio.
• Ongoing design and construction of a laboratory to support mirror development and produce mirror segments for the NuSTAR program.

Goddard digital TV studio

Goddard’s infrastructure requires restoration and modernization as it approaches 50 years of operation. Under our FaCETS contract, Parsons manages subcontractors to complete underground utility projects (steam, chilled water, high-voltage electrical, communications, and domestic water) and building restoration projects (cooling towers, load centers, fire alarms, and HVAC). We also provided planning, design, and construction services in support of two major rehousing efforts. Our successful relocation of nearly 3,000 people was completed on time and within budget.

Our IT team has assisted FMD with its initiatives, including implementing the ARCHIBUS/FM computer-aided facility management system. Parsons staff has created a customized electronic system to support Goddard’s first responder system and its graphic display of HVAC zone data and asbestos locations. Our GIS specialists document the underground utility systems and develop visual displays for various master plan site development scenarios. We have also supported FMD in developing IT security and contingency plans for all information systems.

Constructibility review at jobsite

Our A/E staff provides master planning and design services. Parsons planners led a team that provided a site-specific plan of action to develop a new engineering facility at Goddard Center. FMD recently tasked Parsons to complete a facility condition assessment of the existing engineering complex, which is Goddard’s major satellite integration and testing facility.

We are intrinsically involved in the center’s sustainable design initiatives, including plans for its bioretention ponds, meadows, reforestation, and certification in LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design). Our sustainable design work led to Goddard's winning the Outstanding Sustainable Planning/Design award from the Federal Planning Division of the American Planning Association. A formal presentation of this award will be made in April during the awards luncheon at the 2008 National Training Conference for Federal Planners in Las Vegas. Parsons is recognized as the contributing contractor in winning this award.

Paramount in all our activities at Goddard is our awareness of personnel and mission safety because the nature of our work continually exposes employees to areas occupied by high-tech equipment and ongoing NASA operations. Our management and employees maintain open communications with FMD to ensure we meet its requirements without negatively affecting Goddard’s missions and exposing any personnel to undue risk.

Parsons builds its success on the knowledge that Goddard—a mission-oriented facility with commitments outside the fences and beyond the planet—is not a typical construction site. As Goddard moves forward, generating new deadlines, priorities, and facility requirements, the Parsons FaCETS team will continue to provide high-quality design, construction, and IT support.

Parsons FaCETS team for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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