[Satellite TODAY 08-05-10] A U.S. Congressional Science and Technology Committee claims NASA personnel at the Goddard Space Center ignored potential organizational conflicts of interest issues by allowing ITT Corp. to bid on and win a contract to operate the NASA satellite and Space Mission Communications Network, according to a report released Aug. 3.
    NASA awarded ITT with a Space Communications Networks Services contract in October 2008 over Honeywell Technology Solutions, the program incumbent. Honeywell filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) later that month, and NASA has since extended Honeywell’s incumbency contract program through at least Oct. 9, 2010, with another six-month extension still a possibility.
    The committee said ITT’s bid on the contract might create conflicts of interest since the company has acted as a systems engineering and technical assistance contractor for NASA space communications since 2003.
   The report acknowledges that NASA officials reviewed ITT’s contract language and determined that a potential Honeywell protest to the U.S. Government Accountability Office would fail unless Honeywell could demonstrate substantial facts and hard evidence. However, the committee claims that NASA was more concerned “about making sure that Honeywell couldn’t find obvious ‘substantial facts and hard evidence,’” rather than the substance of ITT’s bid, after reviewing documents from the agency.