Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington, DC

(Phone: 202-358-1761)

RELEASE: 00-148

NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin will present awards to
three minority contractors for their outstanding contributions to
the nation’s space program. The three firms will be honored at the
agency’s annual Minority Business and Advocates Awards Ceremony on
September 26, 2000 at 2:30 p.m. EDT, at NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC.

NASA named RS Information Services, Inc., Minority Contractor of
the Year, Rigging and Welding Specialists, Inc., Minority
Subcontractor of the Year, and Pace and Waite, Inc., Women-Owned
Business of the Year.

RS Information Services (RSIS) is headquartered in McLean, VA and
provides a full range of information technology and engineering
services to NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH. RSIS is
an 8(a) contractor that was started in 1992 and has rapidly grown
to over 600 hundred employees.

Rigging and Welding Specialists, Inc., a Native American-owned
8(a) contractor with sixteen employees, is headquartered in
Highlands, TX, and provides specialized transportation services to
the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. Most notably, they are
responsible for transporting critical and sensitive space flight
articles in support of various Space Shuttle and International
Space Station Programs.

Pace and Waite, Inc., headquartered in Huntsville, AL, provides
prime contract and subcontract services to Marshall Space Flight
Center (MSFC), Huntsville, AL. This woman-owned firm is the prime
contractor for Configuration Management Services at MSFC and
provides high-end engineering support on subcontracts to Boeing,
Teledyne, and Sverdrup Corporations. The firm was started in 1984
and has 160 employees.

NASA also is recognizing outstanding advocates for their
contributions and innovative approaches to utilizing minority and
women-owned businesses. Mr. Ken Martindale, Johnson Space Center,
(Small Business), Mr. Rodney J. Etchberger, Johnson Space Center
(Procurement) and Dr. Shantaram S. Pai, Glenn Research Center
(Technical) will receive NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal. In
addition, five Special Recognition Awards will be given to
individuals for specific outstanding accomplishments: Mr. Harry
Lectora, President of Caribbean Pictometry, San Juan, PR, Mr. Yong
Kim, President of UTA, Inc., Arlington, VA, Dr. Edward Stone,
Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, Dr. Calvin
Lowe, President, Bowie State University, Bowie, MD, and Ms. Peggy
Shreve, President, Frontier Electronic Systems Corporation,
Stillwater, OK.

Finally, three NASA field Centers will be recognized for meeting
or exceeding all of their socio-economic business goals for Fiscal
Year 1999. They are Stennis Space Center, Stennis, MS, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, and Marshall Space Flight
Center, Huntsville, AL.

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