ASRC Federal subsidiary, Arctic Slope Technical Services (ASTS), entered into an agreement with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (Marshall) to provide advanced technology development focused on improving launch vehicle design and performance for the Space Launch System (SLS), a foundational system within NASA’s Artemis Program.

Under the Space Act Agreement, ASRC Federal ASTS will use their Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML) engineering toolkit to demonstrate the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning methods and algorithms for space flight systems through analysis of large scale, complex engine and vehicle data sets. The analysis of these data sets will be used to identify trends, anomalies, and failures. The results will aid in developing more effective methods of providing pre-launch data to launch personnel. Because the SLS is a new system, Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) hotfire data is being used for comparison against the SLS performance data set.

“The ASRC Federal team is honored to be supporting Marshall and the SLS contractor team in analyzing system data which is critical for development and operations of NASA’s deep space exploration systems,” said Scott Altman, ASRC Federal Space operating group president. “Having flown four times on the space shuttle and experienced space systems development first-hand, it’s now incredibly rewarding to provide this technological toolkit to support NASA’s next generation of space systems.”

Executed by the Marshall Partnership Office, this is the first Space Act Agreement between Marshall and ASRC Federal ASTS. The agreement is non-reimbursable; no funds are exchanged between the partners. Both parties provide the resources for their own participation in the partnership. Marshall Space Flight Center is in Huntsville, Alabama.

Contact: Aubrey Mellos  |  [email protected]