Executives of technology firms Jacobs and Linc Research Inc., both in Huntsville, Alabama, will sign a NASA Mentor-Protg Agreement on Dec. 11 at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The signing will be held at 10 a.m. in Building 4200, Conference Room 900, at the Marshall Center. Speakers will include Chris Singer, director of the Marshall Center's Engineering Directorate; Kim Whitson, director of Marshall's Office of Procurement; Randy Lycans, vice president and general manager of Jacobs; Curtis Taylor, president of Linc Research; David Brock, small business specialist in Marshall's Office of Procurement; and T.K. Pendergrass, a Marshall contracting office representative. Members of the news media are invited.

The 12-month agreement is the second of its kind overseen by the Marshall Center, fostering a partnership between a NASA prime contractor and a certified Historically Underutilized Business Zone small business. The federal "HUBZone" program is designed to promote job growth, capital investment and economic development for small businesses in economically challenged communities.

Jacobs, headquartered in Pasadena, California, has been a NASA partner for more than 40 years, and currently supports the U.S. space program in a variety of capacities at NASA centers around the country. It notably holds the Manufacturing Support and Facility Operations Contract at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where NASA built and assembled the Orion crew vehicle which completed its first test flight on Dec. 5 -- and also is building the core stage of the Space Launch System, the heavy-lift vehicle which soon will loft Orion crews into the solar system. Jacobs also manages and implements ground systems operations, flight hardware processing and launch operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where the Space Launch System and Orion will be launched to space to pursue new missions of discovery at Mars and other destinations.

At the Marshall Center, Jacobs is the NASA prime contractor for the Engineering and Science Systems and Skills Augmentation (ESSSA) contract, providing management, personnel and equipment and supplies to perform engineering and science tasks in support of key Marshall offices and organizations.

Linc Research specializes in vibration-controlled flight and launch vehicle solutions, technical management and IT services and applications. The Mentor-Protg Agreement between Linc and Jacobs will support the ESSSA contract at Marshall.

The NASA Mentor-Protg Program, established in 2008 by NASA's Office of Small Business Programs, allows NASA prime contractors opportunities to enter into mentor-protg agreements with small businesses and historically black colleges and universities/minority-serving institutions under their subcontracting programs to establish long-term relationships, enhance technical capabilities and enable protg companies to successfully compete for larger, more complex prime contract and subcontract awards. The Marshall Center oversaw NASA's first Mentor-Protg signing agreement in February 2008.

News media interested in covering the event should contact Jennifer Stanfield in the Marshall Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. Dec. 10.

To learn more about NASAs Office of Small Business, visit:

http://osbp.nasa.gov

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Marshall Center Hosts Mentor-Protege Agreement Signing Between Jacobs, Linc Research