David E.

Steitz
Headquarters, Washington, DC August 7, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1730)

Lanee Cooksey
Stennis Space Center, MS
(Phone: 228/688-3341)

RELEASE: 98-148

PRODUCTS SELECTED FOR SECOND

PHASE OF EARTH SCIENCE DATA PURCHASE

Five offers have been selected for continuation into the

second phase of NASA's purchase of Earth science data products
that help meet the agency's scientific requirements.

"We are very pleased that the products we have chosen will
provide NASA with valuable scientific data for our Earth sciences
efforts," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for
NASA's Office of Earth Sciences, Washington, DC. "This purchase
continues the multifaceted process of NASA working more
aggressively with industry and other non-governmental
organizations to advance scientific understanding of our Earth as
a total environmental system."

The U.S. Congress approved the plan to initiate the data

purchase activity in the fiscal 1997 NASA budget. The program is
managed by the NASA Commercial Remote Sensing Program at Stennis
Space Center, MS, the agency's lead center for fostering
commercial applications of NASA Earth science data and related
technology.

A Phase I Request For Offers was made by NASA in May 1997 to

provide unique simulated or prototype Earth science data products
for science assessment and validation. The Phase II information
will be used by research teams within NASA's Earth Science
enterprise, which manages the agency's portion of an
internationally coordinated research effort to study the Earth's
land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as a global environmental
system.

"By purchasing data upon delivery from the private sector

instead of developing, building and launching new satellites, NASA
may be able to conduct and expand its scientific investigations at
a much lower cost, while encouraging the growth of this economic
area," Asrar said.

Selected products were based on several criteria, including

"best science value" to the government, and the degree to which
the offered data met the business and performance characteristics
of the solicitation, including scientific utility and data rights.
The combined Phase I and Phase II data purchases are valued at
approximately $50 million.

The following companies were selected for the data purchase:

Earth Satellite Corporation

Rockville, MD
Product: Geo-CoverTM, georeferenced Landsat global data set

Positive Systems, Inc.

Whitefish, MT
Product: ADAR 5500, one-meter airborne imagery

AstroVision, Inc.
Stennis Space Center, MS
Product: High Temporal Resolution Geostationary Imagery

EarthWatch, Inc.
Longmont, CO
Product: Star-3I, three-meter airborne SAR imagery

Space Imaging EOSAT

Thornton, CO
Product: IKONOS Original, Master, Model one-meter spaceborne
imagery

Further information about these products and awards is

available on the Internet at URL:

http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/SSC/award.html

-end-