Sonja Alexander                              September 25, 2000
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone:  202-358-1761)

RELEASE:  00-148

NASA TO HONOR MINORITY BUSINESSES

     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 Systems, 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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