For Release: March 28, 1995

Dave Drachlis
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 205/544-0034)

Release No.: 95-27

MARSHALL CENTER'S EXPENDITURES IN ALABAMA TOTAL $837 MILLION IN FISCAL YEAR 1994

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville contributed $837 million to Alabama's economy during the fiscal year 1994 that ended last September. This figure includes $234 million in salaries for personnel and related costs, and $603 million spent on locally procured services, contractor support, and local construction. In addition, retirement annuities were paid to the approximately 2,400 Marshall Center retirees who currently reside in Alabama, adding about $57 million more to the state and local economies.

The $600-million-plus in program funds Marshall Center spent in Alabama was more than its expenditures in any other state. Additional NASA funding (approximately $156 million) was spent locally for International Space Station hardware development done by Boeing/Huntsville. California received $400 million, $400 million was spent in Utah, $200 million was spent in Louisiana and $200 million was spent in Florida. Smaller sums were dispersed among other states.

During fiscal year 1994 the Marshall Center received almost 20 percent of NASA's total budget of $14.55 billion. Of Marshall's $2.84 billion allocation from NASA, $1.89 billion was spent for human space flight activities, $519 million went for science and technology, and the balance -- $433 million -- was spent on mission and institutional support at Marshall Center and other sites across the country.

Since it was established in 1960, the Marshall Center has received a total of $52.7 billion. If these dollars are adjusted for inflation, this total is equivalent to more than $130 billion in 1994 money.

The Marshall Center has paid $3.9 billion in federal salaries during the past 34 years.

At the end of September 1994, the Marshall Center had a total of 3,377 Civil Service permanent and temporary employees, including employees at resident offices at prime contractors' facilities and at component facilities such as the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana.

Of Marshall's total Civil Service workforce last year, 2,654 were college graduates, with 1,947 holding baccalaureate degrees. There were 160 employees at the doctoral level and 547 with master's degrees in fields of engineering, science (predominantly mathematics and physics), and other disciplines, predominantly business administration.

During the past fiscal year, the center had approximately 5,469 institutional and mission service contractor employees working in support of center activities, and about 21,717 prime contractor employees (including subcontractors and vendors), of which 3,199 live in Alabama.

It is estimated that locally employed Marshall Center civil service and contractor personnel and their families comprise about 16 percent (approximately 27,200 people) of the total Huntsville population of 166,900. (As in the case of funding figures, these contractor workforce numbers do not include Boeing's Space Station work, since management of that program is not the responsibility of Marshall Center. About 1,800 Boeing personnel are involved.)

The Huntsville International Airport is supported in some measure by the Center, servicing commercial air service needs. Marshall employees used the airport to make 4,852 business trips at a cost of approximately $1.85 million.

During fiscal year 1994, the Marshall Center purchased $9.6 million in electricity and spent $2.6 million for steam heat and burner fuel, $200,000 for water and $500,000 for sewage treatment. An additional $13.8 million was spent for communications services including line usage and equipment.

In fiscal year 1994, 294,012 individuals toured the Marshall center including educators; civic, conference and symposia visitors; and news media. Of these visitors, 265,000 toured the center as part of the Space and Rocket Center's bus tour program.

In support of our nation's higher education institutions, the Marshall Center in the past fiscal year had 110 active research grants valued at $12.6 million to seven universities and colleges in Alabama: Alabama A&M, Auburn, Tuskegee, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and the University of South Alabama.

Marshall supported the Graduate Student Researchers Program with 56 fellowships given to science and engineering students in fiscal year 1994. Sixteen of these fellowships were granted to participants from universities in Alabama.

The Marshall Center's Cooperative Education Program included 71 graduate and undergraduate students representing 33 colleges and universities in 18 states. Some 62 participants came from 10 different Alabama colleges and universities.

The center supported a Summer Faculty Program with 49 participants spending part of their summer performing research at many of Marshall's laboratories.

The Alabama Space Grant Consortium continued in fiscal year 1994 with $400,000 in Center funding. Five Alabama universities participated in the year's activities.

In 1994, more than 200,000 students and 50,000 teachers and faculty were reached through the operation of Marshall's education programs. Marshall employees and retirees volunteered to participate in the NASA Project LASER (Learning About Science, Engineering and Research) Program, serving locally as speakers, tutors, consultants, and science fair judges. Through Project LASER, 375 instances were recorded of Marshall Center volunteers making presentations, holding workshops, serving as science fair judges, leading tours of center facilities, being "study buddies" and mentors for students with special needs or interests.

Marshall's employees pledged $455,609 to the Combined Federal Campaign in 1994, with $306,992 designated for agencies in northern Alabama. These figures do not include contributions from Marshall Center retirees or from any of the center's contractor employees who contributed directly to the United Way Campaign.

Marshall employees paid $6.7 million in Alabama state income taxes in fiscal year 1994.

In this last decade of the 20th Century, the center remains committed to excellence and continuous improvements in its wide range of current and future endeavors.

Marshall Center continues to be one of the most diverse of NASA's field centers. Space Shuttle-related programs under way in the past fiscal year included the Space Shuttle Main Engines, the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters, Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors and External Tank projects, plus Systems Analysis/Test and Integration. Other major programs and efforts include the Reusable Launch Vehicle technology program; providing contributions to the International Space Station; the Global Hydrology and Climate Center; Spacelab Operations and Payload Mission Management; microgravity experiments; flight experiment science and applications; upper stage vehicles; the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility; the Tethered Satellite System; the Small Expendable Deployer System; Gravity Probe-B payload development; the Optical Transient Detector/Lightning Imaging Sensor; and supporting research and technology.

Another major thrust at the center is to take technology developed for the space program and make it available to U.S. industry, through a wide range of initiatives managed by its Technology Transfer Office.

Throughout 1995 and well into the future, the Marshall Center will remain a vital contributor to America's future in space and to the economy of Huntsville and the state of Alabama.