Business Development Success Stories

COLSA and NASA – A Partnership for the Stars

For 16 years, COLSA has delivered support to NASA and both manned and unmanned spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). At NASA’s Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC), we deliver services and engineering support to ISS payload operations and the Space Launch System through NASA’s world-renowned Marshall Space Flight Center.

COLSA has engineered local and remote services to support NASA spacecraft, payload, satellite, and propulsion systems. With only a few exceptions, we furnish all resources including management, personnel, equipment, and supplies. For real-time payload operations onboard the ISS, we support the astronauts with data storage for ongoing scientific experiments. We store and route ISS science data to remote support sites around the globe—vital, unduplicatable information accrued from continuous experimentation aboard the station.  Such data includes voice recordings, telemetry, and video taken at up to 8k resolution.

An illustration of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). Credit NASA/MSFC

We also provide vital telemetry and monitoring support for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS)—a heavy-lift rocket capable of exploration to Earth’s moon and beyond.  Software and hardware were developed by COLSA for SLS Flight Operations support both at the HOSC and remote sites.  COLSA-designed Configurable Control Rooms at multiple sites provide SLS personnel the tools they require for tests and other launch operations leading up to and beyond the Artemis-I flight scheduled for 2021.

To support space exploration, adaptability is vitally important. When the Commercial Crew Program needed a facility at short notice, COLSA set up a control room through the HOSC for simulation and launch support.  Together with NASA, our devotion to value-added cost-effective solutions leads to the stars and beyond.