ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITIES FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY, INC.

The primary activities covered by this effort include the final servicing mission and subsequent operations through end-of-mission. these activities include: a. science program implementation including: mission planning support, science program definition support, management of the proposal selection, time allocation, and grant award committee processes, and science community outreach. b. routine science operations including: proposal generation and receipt, observation planning and scheduling, updating instrument handbooks, observing and user support, data processing and product generation, archival and data distribution services, calibration assistance and data analysis, anomaly investigation support, user grant administration, observer assistance and engineering operations support. c. ground system sustaining engineering including: science operation system maintenance, infrastructure administration and support, and documentation maintenance d. servicing mission support including: preparation and execution of the observatory verification program, instrument development support, and optical alignment testing support e. generation of performance, science return, and other pertinent informational reports to the hstp f. astronomical community and general public/educational outreach g. special projects including origins forum and independent research this contract includes an additional two-year period after the end of hst's science-mission. this extra time following the cessation of scientific observations is for two years of follow-on archival research. during the final two years of the contract, archival operations and maintenance, an archival research proposal selection process and associated grant administration, and a public outreach program will continue. data analysis software will also be maintained but at a lower level of support such that only modest enhancements may still be made. continuing support will also include the coordination of data analysis software that is produced by the astronomical community. orig psc ar20