RELEASE NO: 97- 146

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. has selected four winners for the 1997 Goddard Contractor Excellence Award. The four winners are: The Boeing Company, Huntington, Calif., AlliedSignal Technical Services Corporation, Seabrook, Md., Computer Sciences Corporation, Lanham, Md., and Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Md.

"The Contractor Excellence Award provides us with an opportunity to recognize those contractors who make a substantial contribution to the mission of Goddard and who are committed to the philosophy of continuous improvement as evidenced by their business practices," said Judy Bruner, the chair of the Goddard Space Flight Center Contractor Award evaluation committee.

To be considered for the award, applicants are asked to provide evidence of meeting schedules, monitoring costs, quality and productivity improvements, management commitment to continuous improvement, customer service satisfaction, human resource utilization and long term research and development.

The winners of this year’s award were chosen because of their continuous improvement and contributions to Goddard’s mission.

The four winners of the award will automatically be sent forward to compete for the George M. Low Award, which is NASA’s Quality and Excellence Award. In addition, two other Contractor Excellence Award finalists will be sent forth for consideration of the prestigious award. The two companies are: Raytheon Support Services Company., Annapolis Junction, Md. and ITT Aerospace, Fort Wayne, Ind.

The other finalists for the 1997 Contractor Excellence Award are: Bristol Aerospace Limited, Winnipeg, Canada; Hughes STX Corporation, Lanham, Md.; Unisys Federal Systems, Hanover, Md.; Unisys Information Management Services, Lanham, Md.; SSAI, Lanham, Md.; and Hernandez Engineering Inc., Seabrook, Md.