NASA put up $7 million conditionally to...

NASA put up $7 million conditionally to enable the sole supplier of a key material used in the space shuttle to reopen a plant. “I don’t look at it as a bailout, because every time we give them something, they give us something in return,” said a spokesman. “We’re not in the bailout business.” After NASA pays Avtex the initial $7 million, “they transfer the rights to NASA as well as the cookbook to making this rayon fiber to our technical specifications,” he said. If Avtex can demonstrate by Nov. 18 that it will get enough other contracts to keep its Front Royal, Va., plant in business, NASA will take out an $11-million contract for enough of the fiber for 12 shuttle launches, the spokesman said.