NASA awards contracts to more diverse companies

Big NASA contractors at Johnson Space Center are awarding more and more work to small, minority-owned Houston-area businesses.

They're not just being tossed a bone, either. Dollarwise, the increased contracts being won by minority and women-owned businesses amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. While some of this is going to fairly new startups, much of it is headed to a host of established companies in and around the Clear Lake area that are growing quickly as a result.

They have undergone a maturing process, noted Dick Huebner of the Houston Minority Business Council, which promotes opportunities for small businesses through contracting with larger ones.

Most minority and women-owned businesses that are successful in working with NASA have owners or key employees who come from NASA or the space program, Huebner said.

"They understand the culture, have good contacts and understand the processes, which sometimes can vary from business sector to business sector," he said.

Years ago, he said, some minority businesses affiliated with NASA's program would grow because of work set aside for minority-owned businesses, but when they grew too big for those programs, they'd go out of business. But that has changed.

"Today we see a very, very stable minority business base there that is now expanding beyond government contractor to private contracting," he said.

For example, GB Tech, which has worked with NASA for almost 20 years, has been selected to receive some major business from Exxon Mobil. Gale Burkett, GB Tech's chairman and chief executive, is the former head of the Texas Aerospace Commission and was recently honored by NASA for public service.

"We're happy to see some of those firms expand beyond the space program," Huebner said. "Not that that is not enough. It is. But it does create some security by having some diversification of customer base."

More opportunities

For many Clear Lake-area companies, their sense of security was shaken after the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas in January 2003. NASA reacted by putting the manned space program on hold, forcing painful adjustments to cut costs or shift to other work.

Now, as NASA gears up for a late spring shuttle launch, all the private businesses affiliated with the space program are back working at a brisk pace.

Cimarron has virtually doubled in size to 450 workers in the past five years or so. The company, which is one of the largest based in Clear Lake City, works for both Lockheed Martin and Boeing NASA Systems.

'Side by side'

"With Lockheed Martin, we work side by side in the Mission Control Center," said Roz Doyle, who has been the chief executive officer at Cimarron since 1999. "We have some people who do telecommunications, talk with the shuttle and the space station, and do maintenance and operations. We also do software development for the space station."

NASA recently gave the company a two-year extension worth $178.5 million.

Ken Reightler, president of Lockheed Martin Space Operations, said NASA has emphasized diversity in the workplace, and the giant company supports that move. He said there are good business and social reasons for doing so.

The companies also bring some valuable assets to the table, Reightler suggested, so the added diversity brings a new dimension to the team.

"They have a lot of innovative ideas and creative concepts that we value," he said.

Boeing NASA Systems and Lockheed Martin over the past several years have expanded the number of minority and women-owned businesses providing support to the space program.

At Boeing, this total has increased 50 percent, from $100 million in 1999 to $150 million in 2004, according to the company.

And at Lockheed Martin, the minority business participation level has increased from roughly 27 percent five years ago to 48 percent today, Boeing's Dan Brandenstein said. That can vary by month depending on what work is being done.

Boeing's most recent subcontracts, which took effect Friday, were awarded to seven minority businesses, which include some that are women-owned. In addition to Cimarron, contracts went to Barrios Technology, Bastion Technologies, Blackhawk Management Corp., GB Tech, MRI Technologies and Muniz Engineering.

Four of those companies — Blackhawk, MRI, Barrios and Bastion — were new to that contract, which involves engineering and technical services, said Russ Carroll, director of supplier management and procurement for Boeing NASA Systems.

"These seven are very diverse suppliers, which is critical to Boeing's long-term strategy to bring diversity into our business and make us more competitive," Carroll said.

Diversity of business

One reason for the growth of these businesses is that they are able to do many things for their customers.

Cimarron, which was founded in 1981, started out doing software development work for Arizona Public Utilities and subsequently grew into government contracting. But it also markets a computer software product suite for school administrators that assists in strategic planning.

Blackhawk is owned by a woman who is a Native American. The company, whose president and CEO is Linda Moorehead, a Cherokee, has grown from 200 to roughly 300 employees.

While some of Blackhawk's growth has come from its contracts involving JSC, much of the recent expansion is tied to its Fort Hood contract. In addition to NASA, the company handles supplies, maintenance and information technology for the Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration.

Although Blackhawk has been affiliated with Boeing for almost a decade now, the company believes there will be additional opportunities under a new contract it just received.

"Our work has been just the space station, but now it opens up a lot more opportunity for us because Boeing does space shuttle work and Department of Defense work," said Stan Moorehead, Blackhawk's general manager.

"We're excited because now we are a true partner with them. This has the potential for being a major growth area for us the next two or three years," Moorehead added.