NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has reached an agreement with U.S. Air Force and U.S. Department of Energy facilities in Tennessee to work jointly on research, development and test activities.

The Memorandum of Understanding, to be signed this week during the Tennessee Valley 2000 Regional Economic Summit in Huntsville, focuses on collaboration and leveraging of the complementary capabilities of the organizations.

The agreement between the Marshall Center and the U.S. Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn., and U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations, in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will be signed by officials of those agencies June 1 at 12:30 p.m. at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.

"By working together, we can enhance the effectiveness of our operations," said Art Stephenson, Marshall Center director. "We will benefit from each other's accomplishments and capabilities as we pursue new joint opportunities."

The agreement calls for collaboration in research, development, test and evaluation to make the best use of scientific and engineering capabilities and facilities supporting the missions of the three government agencies.

The Marshall Center has previously reached cooperative agreements with both Tennessee facilities. The Memorandum of Understanding is more comprehensive, however, in that the agencies will seek new opportunities to work on projects together -- rather than merely share information about current or planned projects.

The Marshall Center is NASA's premier organization for development of space transportation and propulsion systems, as well as NASA's leader in microgravity research. The Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center provides aerospace ground test and evaluation products and services, and is the world's largest complex of aerospace ground test facilities. The Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations has extensive expertise in many areas of science and technology, including advanced materials, manufacturing and prototyping, sensors and instrumention, and advanced computing.