Sun, Nov 27, 2011
Highlights Local Firm On The Eve Of 'Small Business
Saturday'
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden toured Kegman Inc. of
Melbourne, FL, on Friday. The company was one of many which
supplied technology and engineering support to the Mars Science
Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover. Bolden's tour of Kegman coincided
with the Second Annual Small Business Saturday, a day to support
the local small businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and
preserve neighborhoods around the country.
"On Saturday, NASA will be launching our most sophisticated
science laboratory to date, the Mars Science Laboratory, and the
work of dozens of small businesses helped make this happen," Bolden
said. "Even in a project as expansive and with dramatic long-range
impact, small businesses like Kegman and nearly two dozen other
small businesses around the nation are playing a large role."
Kegman is an economically disadvantaged, woman-owned,
veteran-owned small business. It monitors and analyzes the wind
impact during launch preparations.
The data is used by the mission's weather officer to determine
whether conditions are right to launch the Curiosity rover. The
$2.5 billion laboratory will study past and present potentially
habitable environments on Mars after it lands on the planet in
August 2012.
NASA officials estimate more than 40 American companies,
universities and organizations with over 5,000 workers in 31 states
and nine countries contributed to the development and construction
of Curiosity. Of those companies, at least two dozen are small
businesses.
"Curiosity's mission is to get Mars to give up its secrets,"
Bolden said. "But we can't get Mars to talk without the
contributions of companies like Kegman who contribute technology,
innovation, component parts and know-how to the project."
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