NASA has awarded a contract to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to provide a suite of freezers to maintain a controlled temperature environment for science samples aboard the International Space Station, as well as to and from low-Earth orbit.

Cold Stowage II is a single award, cost-no-fee contract with cost-no-fee and firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders. The new contract's base period begins Friday, Jan. 1, 2021, and runs through Sept. 30, 2022, followed by two additional one-year options and one additional 14-month option that may be exercised at NASA's discretion.

The maximum potential value of the contract, including all options and incentives, is $48.3 million.

The contract will support maintenance, sustaining engineering, integration, and operations of the freezers in support of researchers' objectives involving temperature-controlled science.

This fleet of hardware is used to maintain sample integrity aboard the space station and during transit aboard current and future visiting spacecraft. The suite of freezers, built by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, includes Polar, Glacier, Iceberg, Cryo Chiller, Glovebox Freezer, and MERLIN (owned by University of Alabama) and their equivalents. A dynamic combination of these lockers is being used on the station, supporting critical science.

The awardee will perform work under the contract at University of Alabama Birmingham.

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